Jehron Petty’s ColorStack Partners With CodeSignal To Bring More Black And Latinx Developers Into Tech
CodeSignal, an interview and assessment platform, has partnered with ColorStack, a nonprofit tech company that looks to lift Black and Latinx computer science students, to help drive change.
The duo said they plan to provide mentorship and technical interview preparation activities for Black and Latinx Computer Science students.
Prepare resources and practice assessments for active ColorStack members. Students will use CodeSignal as a tool to help hone their coding and interview preparation skills. The two companies will co-host webinars and events to help technical recruiters and university recruiters hire and retain more Black and Latinx developers.
They also plan to do research on CodeSignal assessments based on student feedback and performance that will help increase assessment fairness and validity.
Who is Jehron?
Jehron Petty has been described as a mentor at heart. He graduated from Cornell University back in 2020 with a degree in computer science. But instead of paying it forward years down the line in his career, he said he was eager to put ColorStack in front of students today.
ColorStack, an idea that was born from Petty’s desire to make sure more minority computer science students gain the support they need to succeed in the field, is now helping dozens of students across the country.
According to Tech Wire, Petty started his first business in high school at the age of 16. He fixed and customize iPhones, laptops, and iPads. He began building ColorStack through his Cornell community, but once his passion for the nonprofit grew, Petty decided to take that leap and expand his idea on a larger scale.
He eventually launched ColorStack by himself in May 2020, but he built a full-time team of four employees and one intern after about a year. He was able to add some team members quickly after reeling in about $1 million in funding from corporate sponsors, grants, and other investors to support his venture.
When discussing the partnership with ColorStack, Tigran Sloyan, CodeSignal CEO and co-founder, said: “Our mission at CodeSignal is to help companies go beyond resumes by reducing bias in their hiring and helping level the playing field, so they can truly assess candidates’ skills. We are proud to partner with ColorStack to support their work in providing equal opportunity for underrepresented Computer Science students and new grad developers.”
