UMich Strengthening PIT Career Pathways for Persons of Color: A Knowledge Network and Experiential Learning Approach

The project expands Year 1's experiential learning course and partnership with the PPIA program Junior Summer Institutes (JSIs) and creates a PIT-UN Knowledge Network learning platform (PIT-UN KN). Our objective at the University of Michigan is to build infrastructure, specifically a knowledge,network, that will privilege and center the voices of marginalized communities in Public Interest Technology (PIT) with the aim of developing a more inclusive and just tech future for all. We create a system wide and sustainable approach that addresses diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within PIT by building a public interest technology knowledge network (PIT-KN). The knowledge network will center the embodied knowledge and lived experiences of BIPOC PIT entrepreneurs and use the insights obtained from this effort to drive knowledge sharing, dissemination and learning within the community of BIPOC PIT entrepreneurs. Essentially, the platform will create an environment in which tacit, localized and individual specific insights, knowledge and experiences could be converted to explicit knowledge, thus facilitating learning and knowledge transfer within the community. These will subsequently be used to enable PIT entrepreneurs to navigate the “unwritten rules” that hinder the ability of these individuals to scale their solutions and create broad public impact.