How a student leader cultivates on-campus diversity and leadership in
Australia
Posted by Matthew Ranocchiari, Developer Relations Community Manager,
Australia & New Zealand
To get familiar with her local community, International student
Milindi Kodikara
, originally
from Sri Lanka, joined almost every tech club at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. She
immediately identified an opportunity to establish a more diverse and inclusive tech club to
prepare students to work in the tech industry. Using both her instincts and passion for
community building, she set out on a mission to re-establish a
Google Developer Student
Club
(GDSC) at RMIT University.
“I applied to
become the GDSC Lead
at
RMIT University to create a better, brighter, and stronger community where our students
(regardless of age, gender, sexuality, or race) can thrive, learn new skills, and enjoy their
time with new friends,” Kodikara says.
Preparing students for tech careers
After starting the club, Milindi sought the advice of Matthew Ranocchiari (Google Developer
Relations Community Manager for the region) who then suggested Milindi form a team, set goals,
and plan activities for the semester. Milindi assembled a team of seven students hailing from
Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. They brought a mix of
technical and non-technical backgrounds. Each shared an eagerness to learn about technology,
help other students build projects, and develop leadership skills.
“ I was looking for a team of passionate individuals to make a change
at RMIT University.”
Social media officer Chaamudi Kodikara, helped set up
the club’s various channels, which currently engage 400+ students every day. Design experts
Isaac (Yi Jie) Chuah, Jacqueline Ann Lim, and Andrea Gocheco; event managers Sheryl Mantik and
Kowsar Rahman Sadit; and a tech expert Prottay Karim each round out the
group.
Planning a “Study Jam-packed” semester
When asking students what they wanted from the new club, most students said they were seeking
an opportunity to learn how to land a tech job through networking, get a sense of what tech
jobs are like day-to-day,
and explore
various technologies
. Most of all, they wanted to feel empowered. With these goals
in mind, the team planned multiple events per month, including an inaugural
virtual Games Night
, a series of
lightning talks (called
Geeky Google Tech
Talks
), and
Cloud Study
Jams
.
“As
Cloud
is already a field
that is in high demand, we thought our community could benefit from learning this for their
own career success,” explains Milindi.
Embracing school spirit and multiple learning
opportunities
To ensure students would be prepared for workshops on Artificial Intelligence, Machine
Learning, and robotics, the club held beginner-friendly programs that introduced students to
the topics. They launched these in collaboration with RMIT's Society for Women in Information
Technology, RMIT's Programming Club and additional partners and sponsors. The club’s
HackVision
hackathon, featured games, mentoring sessions, and workshops on topics such as public
speaking, pitching ideas, ideation, UX/UI design, and software architecture.
With a wide variety of workshops that drew many attendees, the events and facilitators helped
students with their technical queries throughout the semester. Some facilitators such as
industry professional Thomas Frantz, Google Chrome Engineer, Jakub Młynarczyk, and Patrick
Haralabidis of the Melbourne
TensorFlow
User Group stay connected with the students. Their connections and willingness to help
solidifies the importance of mentorship. For example, one instructor led a
machine learning workshop
, while
another one walked students through the complex algorithm-related questions asked during
technical job interviews. Milindi herself led a live robotics demo where she programmed Nao
Bots to dance to music and showed other students how to program the robots.
“These workshops helped them expand their tech skills to unexplored areas and help
them feel confident at interviews. Our speakers showed students what is possible with these
new technologies and machines. The time and effort spent on this event was truly rewarding
seeing how much all the participants learned and experienced,” Milindi says.
Representation and professional development
Professional development remains important too, notes Milindi. “We here at GDSC RMIT have
quite a diverse community, and we wanted to make sure our community was well prepared for the
hardships of finding success.” She says, "as a female international student, I've had to apply
to hundreds of companies when I was looking for internships, so I understand the struggle of
applying for jobs, especially the frustration that comes with being rejected, in most cases,
for reasons beyond your control, like visa issues.”
In this spirit, the club collaborated with RMIT's Society for Women in Information Technology
to hold an event called
"ROAR!”
to empower female and underrepresented students. The event included an
#IamRemarkable workshop
with
Googlers. Additionally, the club encouraged students to develop their resumes and LinkedIn
profiles and offered a
Personal Branding
workshop
, giving students multiple opportunities to showcase their talents and
abilities.
Preparing a diverse student body for tech
careers
Milindi expresses gratitude for having the opportunity to reinvigorate the community around
RMIT University’s Google Developer Student Club. She relishes the ability to bring diverse
students from many countries and gender identities together in the service of developing new
skills, learning from each other, and ultimately landing jobs in the fast-growing tech
industry.
"My amazing Core Team and I have given GDSC at RMIT University a new chapter and made a safe
space for tech nerds of all ages, races, genders, and sexualities to feel welcome to be
themselves and strive to be successful," Milindi says. "I am grateful for this fantastic
opportunity to serve our community and help make the world a better place.”
For more information on this GDSC chapter visit the site
here
. If you’re a
student and would like to join a Google Developer Student Club community,
look for a chapter near you here
, or
visit the program page to learn
more about starting one
in your area.