Thanks to everyone who came out to our one year anniversary last week. It was a night I won't forget…

Women's History Month is one of the most profound times of the year for me. It is the time where I celebrate everything I am and everything I represent as a woman. It is also a time where I celebrate all of the women who have paved the way for me to be here.

I believe that women, especially women of color, are among the most resilient group of human beings on earth. When I started Behind The Work, I intentionally launched it in March to align our anniversary with Women's History Month every year. It is a secret I've kept to myself and now that we have officially turned one year young, I can let the cat out of the bag :)

When I started my career in tech in 2013, I found myself highly confused at the lack of representation of women across the industry, and particularly taken aback by the devastating numbers of Black and Latina women in the industry across all levels. Oftentimes I was the only woman or woman of color on my teams and never had a woman of color as a manager.

I didn't let that stop me, though. I let it fuel me and instead of looking for my representation in the industry, I decided to be the representation I was looking for.

After some time hustling and trying to climb the corporate ladder, I quickly realized that while my representation mattered, it was more important for me to dissect the complex and intersectional challenges that are designed to leave people behind in spaces of innovation. When I came to that realization, I performed, I exceeded expectations, got an early promotion in consulting to prove I could do it and then decided that I would take my talents elsewhere.

Enter the birth of America On Tech. This was 2015.

During that time my co-founder and I decided to bet on the idea that genius was equally distributed, but opportunity was not. We came together to build a program that has scaled to four cities across the country, reached 6,600+ students and has placed thousands of students into internships and jobs within tech. This by far is my proudest accomplishment in life and continues to be what wakes me up passionate about working everyday.

Despite the tremendous wins America On Tech has achieved for students, and especially for women and girls, I am still disappointed by the state of women-identifying talent in tech. Quite frankly, many of the numbers have not changed at scale.

Last year Harvard Business School released a working paper about the gender gaps in generative AI adoption. The paper found that women are adopting generative AI technology at a significantly lower rate than men, and that across most of the studies, women are adopting AI tools 10 to 40 percent smaller than the share of men.

This is a problem. It means a new wave of innovation is being shaped without our voice at the table. If women aren't using the tools that are building the future, the future won't be built for them. That is far too risky.

When I was thinking about the topics we'd explore for the one year anniversary of Behind The Work, women, technology and entrepreneurship felt like the right things to discuss.

It was important that the conversation had two perspectives: the perspective of someone who worked in human capital and career development (Rhapsodi Pierre-Jacques) and the perspective of someone who was technical (Jamaila Holder).

There were some key takeaways that I hope you all have an opportunity to listen to this week on the show. Here is a bit of a summary:

Breaking into tech requires a solid network: going through traditional job application platforms can help, but it likely won't seal the deal. Rhapsodi encouraged everyone to go to meet-ups, meet people, put themselves out there and network their way into opportunities.

You can't rely on companies to provide training on AI: While the industry is changing at a rapid rate, learning and development departments can't keep up with the speed of the technology skills required. Jamaila encouraged everyone to use their free time in the evenings and the weekends to up-skill themselves using online tutorials on platforms like YouTube.

Even amid AI, we will still need people who "people well" and you can still learn: Both Jamaila and Rhapsodi agreed that even with AI taking over and disrupting the workforce, we can't undervalue the importance of communication, collaboration and creativity as a skill. As women, we can make ourselves stand out with strong problem solving skills and it is never too late to pick up the tools and start learning them. Don't let the narratives fool you :)

As I leave you today…

I know many of us, our friends and our communities have been heavily impacted by the changes in the workforce.

We are seeing a tremendous amounts of layoffs among experienced professionals, graduating college classes that can't find employment and a job market changing by the minute due to the rise of technology and AI.

Take this as your sign to know that you will be ok, and that there is still a space for you to succeed in the workforce.

Apply yourselves, learn new skills and start building relationships. There is nothing wrong with getting it out the mud if you need to.

Even with the success I've had as an entrepreneur, I am up-skilling and sitting for some certifications myself this year.

You got this <3