Shannon Turner was sick of looking around the room at tech events and seeing few, if any, women. So, in September of 2013, put the call out to women looking to learn how to program and enter the tech industry. This was the genesis of Hear Me Code, a class dedicated to empowering women to code.

Shannon was once able to host Hear Me Code members at her kitchen table. That’s not quite feasible now that Hear Me Code has over 3,000 members. Those who go through the program as students then become educators, helping teach others new members to program.

“We’re here to lift one another up,” says Shannon. To stoke the momentum of Hear Me Code members’ growth, Shannon built a Twilio SMS powered resolutions board. Users could anonymously text in their career or programming goals for the year, and see their peers’ goals.

The simple act of a turning hopeful thought into a text message is one tiny step towards making that resolution into reality. Thanks to Shannon, and the strength of the Hear Me Code community, many of those resolutions have been realized.

Women who entered Hear Me Code out of curiosity are now career programmers and educators making room for other women looking for a seat at the table. Just not Shannon’s kitchen table.