WHAT’S appening A Story of Great Beginnings with Ariel Ridley Ariel Ridley learned about PepUp Tech — a nonprofit helping underserved young adults build tech skills and experience — through the Black Tech Scholars program at the University of Illinois where she’s a senior communications major. While attending PepUp’s bootcamp, Ariel met Salesforce MVP Rebe de la Paz. “I actually went up to Rebe and asked her if this was the best fit given that my field wasn’t actually technical-based. She told me there were lots of options for with students, alumni, and donors. Customized to track Jewish information — such as affiliations and Hebrew birthdays me, and since then, she’s been a mentor to me.” — as well as university relations, Vanessa’s app is also flexible. After bootcamp, Ariel continued learning Salesforce and completed PepUp Tech’s 10-week online course. “That’s when I really got into Salesforce, hands-on learning about how to become an admin. A few months after that, Selina Suarez [PepUp Tech’s Founder and Executive Director] reached out to me that she had someone in Chicago interested in having an intern work with her to develop an app.” Enter Kelly Walker, Senior Lightning Adoption Consultant at Salesforce. “I had an idea for a project and knew I wanted to work with a PepUp Tech student. As much as I love Salesforce and the community, I’ve realized that it’s hard for new admins to get started. You need experience to get a job, but how do you get that experience? I knew I had a unique opportunity to give a student that experience, so I reached out to Rebe de la Paz to find the right student.” on AppExchange and find more “Kelly had an idea for an app that helped with the transition from Classic to Lightning. I was familiar with both by completing different trails on Trailhead and exploring in the org,” said Ariel. Ariel and Kelly met weekly to plan, build, test, modify, and pilot the app. “She [Ariel] led the project through the stages, and I would help where or how she needed me to,” said Kelly. Transition Helper for Salesforce Lightning went live on AppExchange in late June. “It was a long but rewarding experience. I enjoyed learning about the app listing process and deepening my knowledge of Salesforce,” Ariel said. So what’s next for Ariel? She recently took a position as a Customer Support Specialist at Copado Solutions, and will graduate next May. “I plan to create more apps in the I am not distracted by shiny, new future. I almost didn’t want [this project] to end because I was having so much fun. It’s rewarding to know there’s an app out there that can help people transition from Solutions badge on Classic to Lightning — and it’s an app that I’ve created. If you asked me a few years ago, I never would have thought that I would have done something like this.” FALL 2019 FALL 2019 THE EXCHANGE 7