Black Technologists At Capital One Have Launched An Employee Mentoring Program To Help Elevate Peers Of Color

The Blacks in Tech (BIT) employee resource group at Capital One wants to help all its members think through and navigate career elevation. I

So in 2021, the group launched the Rise Up mentorship program, where for six months, participants are paired with mentors based on mutual career interests, current job positions, and professional goals, such as leadership or exploring another role.

The Rise Up program provides long-term career mentoring and guidance in professional development.

Eloise Hudgins, Chief of Staff, Budget and Labor at Capital One, is a mentee from the program. After two years with the company, she was looking for insight into the obstacles she was dealing with at work and wanted to help others by sharing her experiences.

She was assigned Preston Burroughs, director of database and software engineering who’s been with Capital One since 2012, as her mentor.

Burroughs, the co-chapter lead for BIT Northeast, works with three mentees, he told AfroTech: “It helps me to have these conversations,” he says, “because there are some things I may overlook that I may not have run into during my time [before becoming a people leader]. It helps me to just take a step back and think about these conversations.”

Hudgins says the advice she’s given and received in private helped her find her voice in public, according to the tech platform.

Learn more about Capital One and its work to build a more inclusive culture