Girl Power: Trenton teens meet with female technologists, engineers at Comcast

A group of ten young women from HomeWorks in Trenton recently traveled to Philadelphia to tour the Comcast Technology Center and meet with members of Comcast’s BENgineers – an employee resource group at Comcast supporting Black technologists and engineers – and TECHWomen@Comcast – a forum of female technologists.

HomeWorks, an after-school residential program for high school girls, seeks to equip Black and brown girls in Trenton through engaged community building and programming focused on female empowerment, academics and life skills.

The visit provided HomeWorks scholars a chance to speak with the Comcast team about their backgrounds, education and career paths and what it’s like to work at Comcast. The goal: Help the HomeWorks scholars connect the dots between their coding sessions, and how that translates into real-world technology.

“It’s so powerful for our scholars, who are all Black and brown girls, to see themselves in these incredible Comcast team members who are coders, engineers, product managers and more,” said Natalie Tung, co-founder and executive director of HomeWorks, during a recent interview with TrentonDaily following their visit to the Comcast Technology Center. “Taking what they are learning from their coding classes and connecting it to what they were seeing in Philadelphia and using it to envision their future was really powerful.”

The trip also included a stop at The Universal Sphere, as well as a tour of the product lab and a demonstration from Comcast’s Technology Product Experience Team. At the end of the day, Comcast surprised each student with a backpack and iPad to take home.

“This opportunity is one of the many reasons why we’re more committed than ever to building a future of unlimited possibilities through our Project UP initiative,” said Kimberly Smith, director of community impact, Comcast Freedom Region. “We want to help open doors for the next generation of technologists, engineers, innovators – no matter their gender or race. It was inspiring to meet with these students and help show them their dreams are possible.”

Comcast engineers also volunteered to host a series of coding lessons for HomeWorks students at their facilities over the past couple months. The volunteer efforts were coordinated through Team UP, an always-on, 365-days-a-year effort that provides opportunities for Comcast employees to further their involvement in local communities.

Comcast has been a proud partner of HomeWorks since 2020, providing grants totaling $50,000 for technology training programs and in-kind support for technology.