While at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, I was invited to attend the Silicon Slopes conference where Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg was one of the featured speakers. As I’m walking through the myriad of people, I looked up to see an enormous two-story van that was blasting Tupac; you know I had to see what this was all about!
As I approached the van, I was able to see the name of the company was Domo. Domo is known for accelerating digital transformations by securely connecting and normalizing data from over 1,000 sources; okay, I was even more curious to walk into the van more than I was before I heard Tupac blaring from the speakers. As a small business looking to compete with the media giants out here, having all of our data in one space, from one source, would be an amazing feat.
I proceeded to hop on the van to be greeted by technology I’ve never witnessed! In awe, I was guided through a demo tour with tons of gathered information full of analytics and data that almost made me dizzy because of how fast the information was flowing across the screen! With Domo’s speed and ease of connecting data, customers see an average 434% ROI on their digital transformation investments. This means you can see more money in your pocket because you are looking at and addressing your company’s needs in real time; now this made me really want to learn further about Domo because this technology would really serve IMPACT in a greater capacity than I initially thought, but if you know me, you know I’m checking to see what their diversity looks like within their company and what is Domo doing for the black community, specifically!
Hence comes the dynamic Nikki Walker, Director of Brand Experience and Community Engagement at Domo who explains the Domo AUC Student Cohort partnership with HBCU’s in Atlanta and its significance.
- According to studies, organizations with inclusive cultures report that they are:
- 2x as likely to meet or exceed financial targets
- 3x as likely to be high performing
- 6x more likely to be innovative and agile
- 8x more likely to achieve better business outcomes
- Yet, the latest reports note that:
- 83% of tech executives are white
- More than 50% of employees at Apple and Google are white
- Only about 18 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in computer science go to non-white students
- At Google and Microsoft, the share of US technical employees who are Black or Latinx rose by less than a percentage point since 2014
The Domo AUC Student Cohort is a recruiting program focused on engaging the diverse student population at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In its inaugural effort, the recruitment efforts focus on three of the four institutions that make up the Atlanta University Center Consortium; Spelman College, Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University. Domo has, with the help of the AUC Administration, identified 10 students who will have the opportunity to experience the tech sector in a hands on way. Students will travel to Salt Lake City, Utah to tour Domo HQ and meet with Domo executives, local Black student leaders and diverse community leaders from Salt Lake and Utah Counties. Students will become certified in Domo at no cost. Upon completion of the certification, students will be enrolled in the Domo Internship Exchange, where Domo will advocate on their behalf, to join one of our customers as a summer/seasonal intern focused on Domo based projects. A selection of the students will be invited to intern at Domo HQ in American Fork, Utah for the Summer 2020 with the expressed intent of extending an offer of full-time employment upon graduation.
Not only was I impressed about this amazing program Domo is providing for our youth, IMPACT had to be involved in this unique program some kind of a way. When Domo came to Atlanta to meet with the students, IMPACT was invited to attend this first class dinner at the ultimate Atlanta dining experience, the Sundial. Now if you don’t know the Sundial, it is located on the 72nd floor of the Westin hotel. The elevator is all glass, with panoramic views of the city; an amazing site to see and an amazing first impression for a young adult to have to be wooed by a company!
Nikki Walker states, “The opportunity for Domo to partner with students and administrators from the AUC is a win for all parties. We spent the weekend engaging with brilliant young minds in Business and STEM fields whose ideas and abilities can only enhance our brand. They get the opportunity to get hands on experience working with an industry leading technology brand and explore life in Utah as a potential place to launch their post collegiate careers. With such diverse backgrounds and breadth of lived experiences, their fresh ideas will help us look at complicated business challenges through a new lens. We are excited to introduce the students of the AUC Cohort to the Domo team, their collegiate contemporaries from our state’s colleges and universities, and the supportive and nurturing Black community in the Salt Lake Metro Area. I am truly looking forward seeing what will come of their time at Domo Headquarters during the Summer 2020 internship program.”
IMPACT Magazine will be following this program and the students throughout their internship to feature the amazing IMPACT Domo is achieving with their work in the black community.
Article written by: Founder/Editor-In-Chief, Tunisha Brown @momentswithtunisha
