Explicitly and without apology a marketing vehicle MaryMaryQuiteContrary

Sit back and relax, folks. I've got a story to tell.

And it's sort of a long one. 

It ends with this:

An afternoon spent in a classroom teaching a group of High School girls the language of computers in an after-school club.

That's how I spent two hours of my day, today. 

And it was "stinkin' awesome." (to borrow the vernacular of the youngsters I spent some time with.)

But my journey into this classroom started just about a year ago.

That's when my friend Maria told me about the Last Lecture.

See, Maria and I were walking together -- for exercise. And one morning she told me I had to watch the Last Lecture.

So one sunny, late winter Saturday afternoon, I was on my couch cruising YouTube and I watched Randy Pausch give his Last Lecture.

There's lots to talk about when it comes to Randy Pausch, but I'll stay on message (as we like to say in the biz) and cut to the chase (to mix metaphors)...  In his lecture, Randy Pausch talked about Alice.org.

Alice is an open source initiative about teaching kids the Java programming language.

• Open Source: Sun is the largest commercial contributor to open source movements in the world. And there's no other commercial entity that's even close.
• Java: The father of Java -- James Gosling -- is a Sun Microsystems employee. (I like to imagine that it sprang from his head fully formed, kind of like Athena and Zeus.) :-)
  
• Young people + computer programming: We're a company defined by innovation. We need talent and care a whole lot about the talent pipeline.
  

There were just so many natural points of alignement. There was so mcuh opportunity for partnership here.

To make a very, very long story short here's what happened next:

There were a lot of people at Sun who made this happen. There are some I need to call out: 

1. Daniel Green. He was absolutely instrumental in making this come together. I could go on and on and on about Daniel Green. But the bottom line is that this would not have happened without him.

2. A group of executives at Sun. We've got to start with Susan Space and Ingrid Van Den Hoogen. (my boss and boss' boss at the time all this was shaking down). They were the first ones to say yes. Then the folks who leaned into this to make sure it got moving included Dave Douglas, James Gosling, David Harris, Hal Stern, and Ingrid. I go a ways back with Dave, David, Hal and Ingrid. When I was responsible for the Sun Foundation, they were on the Board. We've spent countless hours together working on all kinds of different projects. I also go a ways back with James. I've known him for more than a decade. But to be totally honest with you, I still get a bit nervous around James. He was our big gun. And we needed one. Because right at the very end of all the work that so many people did to make this all come together... we had a little bit of.... well.... let's call it a bumb. Anyway, right at the end we had and issue and we had to bring in the big gun. That was James and he was awesome. And it all turned out just fine in the end.

There were other execs involved, including the big boss.

Like I said, lots of people at Sun were part of making this all come together. And we had absolutely outstanding partnership at CMU. What a class act group of people over there. It all came together. And it's all good.

But here's the part where it gets great. For me.

The collaboration between Sun and Alice.org opened the door to a personal opportunity for me; to give back to the community that I live in.

I reached out to my local high school. And I asked for the opportunity to volunteer my time teaching girls the language of computers using Alice. I connected with an outstanding teacher who's extended a hand of partnership to me.

And today, we had our first after-school club.

It was awesome! The girls were so excited! The time we had together flew by. All of them were able to create their own worlds in Alice before our time was done. I just couldn't believe how easy it was for them; how quickly they were able to learn using Alice.

It was just the best experience that I've had in a very long time. It was energizing and just so fun.

<Personal communication to Colin and Liz: Thank you!!!>

I'm going to spend the rest of the school year with these girls, teaching them how to program in Java using Alice in this after school club. 

As we go on this journey, I'll chronicle it here.

Meanwhile, I wanted to share this story with you.

<warning: public display of affection follows. if this kind of thing makes you uncomforatable, pls avert your gaze.>

Sun is a very special place.

You can say a lot of things about Sun. And plenty of folks have.

But one thing that anyone who's ever worked at Sun will tell you, it's a place where incredible things happen.

And on days like today, I feel so honored and so lucky to be associated with the people who define this company.

I'm so proud to work here.

Mary