Dear Family & Friends of ColorStack,

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Happy New Year 🎉 I hope you are reading this well-rested and in good health.

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As I reflected on 2021 with the team, most of us were in disbelief. After we listed the first few milestones, it was as if I had only one reaction left in me: “Wait… that was this year???”

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Since the beginning of 2021, we

• Raised over $1.5 million in grants, corporate sponsorships, and donations.
• Launched 4 inaugural programs and events: Sprout, Career Camp, Family Reunion, and Stacked Up Summit.
• Grew our team to 6 full-time employees.
• Supported 2000+ Black and Latinx Computer Science students.
• Worked with 300+ volunteers and 50+ companies.
• Directly help hundreds of Black and Latinx CS students stay in the major, complete their degree, and/or secure their first job post-graduation.

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…and so much more. Most impressively, with a team of fairly recent college graduates that I have the pleasure of working with daily.

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2021 also taught us a lot and challenged us to take a second to think. Personally, last year being my first full year as a CEO, I was forced to grow up in ways I didn’t even know I needed to, quickly. As a team we learned a ton as well. Launching so many programs, events, and initiatives gave us an endless amount of feedback and data highlight where we need to invest in 2022.

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This year, our focus is to return to the heart of ColorStack, our family of students. Students don’t want more programs, surveys, and extra time commitments. They want to find their tribe, excel in the classroom, land that full-time job, and pay it forward as much as they can along the way. To our members today and tomorrow, we are committed to creating a systematic way of delivering this to you without any padding. You deserve it.

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We’re going to build the strongest community of Black and Latinx Computer Science students the world has ever seen. I would give you more details on what we’re cooking up to accomplish this, but don’t you love a good surprise?

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Thank you so much to all of our staff, students, sponsors, and supporters around the world that are helping this vision come to life. We’re going to continue to make you proud.

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In Community,

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Jehron Petty // Founder and CEO‍