Sharing Talent, Technology, Time

Over the course of the past four years, Sun employee volunteers in Sao Palo, Brazil have been opeining up our facilities on evenings and weekends. They've been bringing in young people from impoverished communities and training them on basic IT principals, Java 101, office skills. They've touched the lives of 220 young people -- and changed the trajectories of some.

There is an effort that our group is leading to learn from, and replicate, the programs that our Brazillian colleagues have driven. It's called Project Open Doors.

This week we were very pleased to host a group of young people in our Menlo Park, CA headquarters.

The high school-aged students are part of the Coro Exploring Leadership Program. They are investing in expanding their leadership skills with an eye towards making an impact on issues important in the communities where they live. The program is about fostering confidence and courage to put their ideas into action and positively impact their high school and neighborhood communities while changing society's assumptions of youth.

Sun VP Joe Hartly is a graduate of the CORO program.

We were pleased to have these young people with us today. The interaction is part of our Project Open Doors.

With Open Doors, we extend the hand of partnership to young people in the communities where we operate. Today we hosted a one-day event. But there are also ongoing, sustained engagements under Project Open Doors umbrella (first US ongoing program to roll out in the fall).

The interaction is all about exposing young people to who we are and what we care about. And challenging their thinking in the ways in which the network can be used to drive positive change in their lives. 

Today, the young people interacted with Sun executives including...

... Ingrid Van Den Hoogen, SVP of Brand, Global Communications and Integrated Marketing.

They interacted with technology, were exposed to some new initatives we're driving and met with a wide range of professionals including:

Stacey Beck - Engineering program manager for new product introduction
Victor Cousins - A day in the life of an HR Business Partner"
Fiona Gallagher - Senior Brand Manager and steward of Sun's Second Life presence
Orlena.Fong - A day in the life of a Sun attorney
Ingrid Mayer - A Day in the Life of a Marketing Team
Scott Meeth - Verifying processor designs, before they become processors.
Margaret.Nguyen - From Advertising Intern to Employee - Make it Happen!
Shari Slate - Director of Global Diversity
Susan Space, Director of Brand and Advertising
Chris Tsilipounidakis - Intern turned employee

These colleagues and so many others... sharing the opportunity.

:-) 

Mary