Building an education savings platform, with Ruby!

by Tyler Ackerman

In this engaging presentation at RubyConf 2022, Tyler Ackerman, a software engineer at Wealthsimple Foundation, shares insights on building an education savings platform and ways to give back to the tech community. He begins by introducing his background in community service, influenced by his family's strong emphasis on giving back, and his journey from studying business to working in tech with a focus on making a social impact.

Key points from Tyler's talk include:

- Accessibility Advocacy: Tyler emphasizes the importance of making applications usable for everyone, including people with disabilities and those with limited technology access. He notes that while achieving 100% accessibility is unrealistic, even small improvements make a significant difference.

- Hosting Workshops: He discusses the benefits of workshops for teaching new topics and creating safe learning environments, highlighting how they can be low commitment but high impact.

- Mentoring and Coding for Non-profits: Tyler shares personal experiences in mentorship, emphasizing the rewarding nature of helping others grow in their careers while also underlining the varied time commitments involved in volunteering with non-profit organizations.

- Teaching: Teaching, whether formally or informally, can have a significant impact on future generations, although it requires a learning curve and the development of soft skills.

- Civic Hacking: This involves using public data to solve community issues, creating tangible benefits through engineering skills.

- Open Source Software Contributions: Contributing to open-source projects can be daunting yet impactful, providing solutions to societal problems at little financial cost.

- Working in Non-Profit Sector: Tyler discusses his role at Wealthsimple Foundation, which aims to democratize access to financial tools. He describes their initiatives like bursaries and education savings programs, which help students and low-income individuals improve their financial literacy and access resources.

Throughout his speech, Tyler provides anecdotes of his experiences, including the challenges and rewards of working in a non-profit and collaborations with community members. He emphasizes the foundation's symbiotic relationship with Wealthsimple, which, despite challenges, has allowed them to help thousands of individuals access educational funding.

Tyler concludes with an encouraging message for the audience to start small in giving back and to leverage their technical skills for community improvement. He suggests actionable steps like educating oneself about accessibility or volunteering, aiming to inspire engineers to make a positive impact in their communities.

00:00:00.000 Ready for takeoff.

00:00:16.920 Hello everyone, my name is Tyler. I'm a software engineer with Wealthsimple Foundation, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

00:00:20.520 Today, I'm going to talk to you about a few different ways you can give back to the tech community. I'll start out first by giving a little background about myself.

00:00:31.380 I come from a family where there’s always been a strong emphasis on giving back to the community. Most notably, when I was young, we started this foundation that was meant to bridge the gap between post-secondary education and university for at-risk students in the Greater Toronto Area.

00:00:39.540 I continued to volunteer when I got to university, expanding my efforts to the Toronto community as well. I actually studied business in university, but when I transitioned into the tech industry, I wanted to know how I could leverage those skills as a software engineer to make a bigger impact in the community at large.

00:00:53.399 So, I compiled a list of different ways that I have tried to give back, as well as some that I aspire to do. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it serves as a good starting point to encourage giving back in the community.

00:01:06.420 I break it down by what I like to call the spectrum of giving back. When I think about volunteering, the number one thing for me is ensuring that the time commitment is manageable. I don’t want to overwhelm myself, and I’m very cognizant that burnout is real when volunteering.

00:01:24.600 Consequently, I categorize the spectrum by time commitment, with activities requiring less time commitment on the left side and those requiring more on the right side. Towards the end of my presentation, I will share a very interesting situation where I found myself volunteering full time as part of a non-profit organization.

00:01:40.560 Let’s get started! First and foremost, let’s talk about being an accessibility advocate. What exactly is accessibility? For those who don't know, it’s simply about making an application usable by as many people as possible.

00:01:51.480 When a lot of people think about accessibility, their mind naturally goes to people with disabilities, but it also includes people with technology restrictions such as very low internet connectivity or those who only have access to a mobile device or a desktop computer.

00:02:07.620 Creating accessible applications means making sure you’re capturing all user segments in your design. The cool thing about this is that once you learn these accessibility design patterns, it becomes relatively easy and saves time. Many complex features often turn out to be the least accessible.

00:02:19.080 Oftentimes, a simple solution is the more accessible solution. By being an accessibility advocate, you're helping to make the internet usable for an entirely new segment of people. It’s important to note, however, that 100% accessibility is not an attainable goal.

00:02:32.780 A sad reality is that 97% of the top 1 billion websites aren't fully accessible. So, even small steps you take, such as ensuring that any application you’re developing has a mobile component, contribute to increasing its usability.

00:02:47.640 Next, I would like to talk about hosting workshops. I love workshops—they're a fantastic way to learn new topics that would typically be taught in a classroom setting. Moreover, you don’t necessarily need previous experience to host a workshop.

00:02:54.840 For example, after getting my first job in the tech industry, I returned to my programming school where I started teaching people how to ace tech interviews. I learned the hard way that interviews in tech differ significantly from traditional business interviews.

00:03:10.560 The time commitment involved in hosting a workshop is relatively low. Initially, there’s a ramp-up period—your first workshop may be stressful and require a lot of preparation, but after that, it becomes easier with some maintenance over time.

00:03:32.520 The impact of hosting a workshop is massive. You create content that isn’t easily found elsewhere, providing a safe environment where participants can ask questions, try things out, and even fail without repercussions. It gives them the chance to experiment and apply what they’ve learned.

00:03:44.580 Volunteering can also be categorized into two areas: mentoring and writing code for non-profits. I’m sure many of us here have experienced the benefits of mentorship from a senior developer, and mentoring certainly involves a distinct time commitment.

00:04:01.920 As a mentor, I typically meet with my mentees once or twice a month, for about 30 minutes to an hour each session. During these meetings, I leverage my skills and experiences to help guide another engineer towards their career goals. Writing code for non-profits varies greatly in terms of workload.

00:04:20.820 Tasks can range from basic website maintenance to acting as the entire development team, handling project management and application development. The time commitment can therefore vary from a few hours a month to consistent daily involvement outside of your regular hours.

00:04:37.560 As a mentor, the experience of guiding someone is rewarding because you gain leadership skills while helping a young engineer develop their career path. Conversely, being mentored allows for a safe environment where you can ask questions and expand your network.

00:04:54.660 Mentoring helps you grow personally and professionally, while volunteering by writing code for non-profits impacts their operations directly. Non-profits often cannot afford these services on their own, making your contributions vital.

00:05:10.440 Next, I'd like to discuss teaching, which can range from more formal instruction in a classroom to less formal settings like online platforms or YouTube. The time commitment can be significant and, similar to workshops, may require preparation for the first engagement. However, after the initial learning curve, it's possible to teach on either a full-time or part-time basis.

00:05:25.680 One challenge with teaching that is less discussed is the implicit time commitment. You need enough experience to effectively teach, especially in formal sectors where licensure may be required. Alternatively, in the private sector, experience is often sufficient.

00:05:40.400 The impact of teaching is substantial. You're connecting with a new generation learning essential programming skills and digital literacy. However, I found that starting a bit too early in my career presented a very steep learning curve I hadn't anticipated.

00:05:54.840 I initially believed raw programming skills would suffice for teaching, but I learned the importance of other competencies such as empathy, active listening, and communication skills.

00:06:12.720 Now, let’s talk about civic hacking. This involves leveraging publicly available information or government data to improve your community. Civic hacking doesn’t always have to be performed online; it encompasses utilizing your engineering skills to identify community issues and devise pragmatic solutions.

00:06:28.260 The time commitment often starts manageable, but as project scope grows, you'll need to consider maintenance and potential feature additions. However, the benefits can be quite significant, as civic hacking breaks down barriers and improves access to information.

00:06:46.740 An example would be the initiatives in Toronto where the government released bus data, leading to the creation of applications delivering real-time tracking—a marked improvement over the official transit application.

00:07:01.020 Next, I want to touch on writing open source software. This area can feel daunting, especially since it involves software that is distributed with its source code, enabling iteration and modification by others. Some prominent examples of open-source software are Ruby, Rails, React, Firefox, and Linux.

00:07:13.740 The time commitment associated with open-source projects can be significant. Besides coding, you often face bureaucratic processes such as licensing and management tasks.

00:07:30.120 For those considering contributing to open source, a good starting point is iterating on existing projects. The overall impact is substantial—open-source contributions help provide solutions to societal issues without significant financial barriers.

00:07:43.920 Finally, I want to discuss working full-time for a non-profit organization. This is a unique aspect of my experience, but it's worth sharing. Wealthsimple, a fintech organization based in Toronto, aims to democratize wealth and financial freedom for all.

00:08:01.560 Despite our ambitious goals, we face systemic issues that hinder access to financial products. Many individuals who could benefit from our services view investing as unattainable and risky.

00:08:20.280 This is where Wealthsimple Foundation, our nonprofit arm, comes into play. We focus on breaking down barriers to achieving financial independence through education, outreach, and support.

00:08:38.520 Our primary strategy includes offering bursaries and tailored programming focusing on financial literacy. Many potential users lack basic knowledge about financial concepts like compound interest and credit scores, making it challenging to teach them about investing.

00:08:54.960 Additionally, we provide an education savings platform that allows individuals to invest tax-free in accordance with government regulations. This includes significant benefits such as tax breaks and government grants for lower-income earners.

00:09:11.520 Our organization benefits from a symbiotic relationship with Wealthsimple, which provides funding and volunteer support for our outreach efforts. In return, we help Wealthsimple achieve its goals by facilitating financial education and fostering investment practices.

00:09:30.180 Unlike typical corporate give-back programs, where organizations may fund initiatives but lack ongoing involvement, we actively partner with community members to provide tailored educational content. This activity may involve teaching about responsible credit practices or addressing financial concerns faced by homeless individuals.

00:09:45.540 However, our relationship with Wealthsimple does present challenges. Due to our shared name, we face scrutiny from regulatory agencies, which prevent us from advertising Wealthsimple's products during our outreach efforts. Consequently, we must maintain neutrality and lose potential revenue that could improve our application.

00:10:04.440 To overcome this, we maintain a strong engineering focus. As part of our dedicated team, I'm directly involved in product development and outreach programs, which allows me to understand community needs better.

00:10:16.320 The rewards of working with a non-profit are incredible. Over the past two years, we've helped 8,000 students receive funding while offering financial literacy materials to 2,000 individuals.

00:10:29.040 The funding we provide helps individuals capitalize on resources that would otherwise go unclaimed, empowering them on their path toward financial independence. Witnessing firsthand how my work impacts community members makes it fulfilling.

00:10:47.280 Through this journey, I've met passionate individuals both within the organization and the community. Their stories are empowering, offering a glimpse into how we can drive change together.

00:11:02.640 With all this information I've shared, my main takeaway for you is to start small and set achievable goals. This can be as simple as watching a YouTube video about making websites more accessible or reaching out to organizations you’ve always wanted to work with.

00:11:13.560 Simply scheduling 15 minutes to brainstorm ways to contribute to your community can pave the way for future involvement. I hope my presentation inspires you to leverage your skills as a software engineer to give back to the community.

00:11:27.440 Thank you.