Nourishing partnerships—Hosting a networking breakfast with Rewriting the Code

Mighty Acorn staff and RTC members discuss civic tech

Millennium Hall, it turned out, was an easy walk from my Chicago apartment. I was meeting my colleague, Rachael, on day 2 of the Code for America (CfA) summit. This morning, Mighty Acorn Digital was hosting a breakfast at the Hall in partnership with Rewriting the Code (RTC).

I’ve been working in tech for several years, but in marketing as a non-developer, so I’d only recently learned about RTC. It’s a 501(c)(3) nonprofit “dedicated to empowering university students and early career women in tech.” Rachael had noted that the first Mighty Acorn engineering apprentice, Rue, is from RTC; meeting at an RTC event is how this working relationship blossomed. Mighty Acorn is committed to helping RTC members learn, grow, and develop meaningful careers in civic tech.

To take advantage of our gathering time in Chicago during CfA, RTC organizers had envisioned a networking event. It was a low-pressure opportunity for RTC members to discuss their professional aims, university research projects, and tech topics of choice with Mighty Acorn CfA attendees.

Our Director of Operations, Alex, had championed both Mighty Acorn’s partnership with RTC and the event itself, organizing a dietary- and allergy-aware breakfast. When their schedule filled up, Rachael took over.

With the attentive staff at Millennium Hall managing breakfast setup, several RTC members began filtering in. We expected 12 members to attend, so I hastened to position as many square tables next to each other as possible while trying to avoid unintended slapstick comedy.

We got so swept up in various conversation groups that I forgot about the ice breaker cards. (I’m still sorry, Rachael!) Rachael had made beautifully designed conversation bingo cards with gentle ice-breaker statements and questions such as “I have at least one pet at home” / “I love spreadsheets” / “Have you ever lived in another country?”

Stack of Mighty Acorn conversation bingo cards, with iridescent star stickers beside

While I lacked the subject matter knowledge and expertise, RTC members had both in abundance. It was fun to listen to my Mighty Acorn colleagues engage in free-flowing conversations about research on large language models and cybersecurity graduate work.

Personally, it had taken me a long time to gain a sense of community, both inside and outside of university / work circles, but here, no one seemed to feel unsupported or alone. Witnessing everyone talking with such animation, locked into their respective conversations, I didn’t sense lack. I sensed reciprocity and mutual excitement—community in action. I was glad RTC existed and was proactive in championing its members.

RTC members and Mighty Acorn attendees chat over breakfast at Millennium Hall