New Relic’s diversity scholarships honor devs who ‘build software that matters’

In advance of its first-ever developer conference, New Relic is announcing 10 scholarship recipients. Its scholarship program is aimed at promoting diversity in technology; the developers recognized include developers from PyLadies, Rails Girls, and Hackbright, the all-women code school.

The scholarship will enable 10 recipients from diversity-focused technology groups to attend FutureStack13, New Relic’s conference coming up in one month and taking place in San Francisco. Scholarships include an all-expenses-paid trip to San Francisco to participate in the conference as well as mentorship opportunities and even recruitment possibilities.

Companies such as AppDirect, CloudBees, Datapipe, GitHub, Joyent, and Fastly are sponsoring the FutureStack scholarship recipients.

Jen Diamond, who participated in the Rails Girls Summer of Code, is one of the winners. She said in a statement on the scholarship, “I’m looking forward to being inspired by information, meeting the visionary people doing the work of the future and exploring the realm of possibilities in technology.”

Another recipient, Anne Thessen of PyLadies Boston, said, “I’m in the middle of a career transition from research science, so this scholarship represents a foot in the door. I would like to stay in the science and technology field; and despite the focus on bringing more women into STEM, it is still really hard for those of us who want to be here to stay.”

And Portland Code School’s Katie Leonard had these words about the scholarship: “I chose to study web application development at the Portland Code School because I wanted to build software that matters. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to learn more about how people are creating and inspiring technology that will change the world.”

If FutureStack sounds like something you’d like to participate in, VentureBeat readers are being given a special discount. Just use this link for the conference’s Eventbrite page, and enter the discount code “FSVentureBeat” to get a 40 percent off deal on your ticket.