Raisin Spotlight: Christine Tran, Software Engineer

How long have you been at RaiseMe? 3 years 

What brought you to RaiseMe? After interning at a large company, I wanted to try working at a small to medium-sized start up. I heard about RaiseMe on LinkedIn, and after looking into the company, I applied! RaiseMe’s mission really resonated with me since education has always been a big part of my life because neither of my parents were able to go. Three years later, and I have no regrets!

What’s your favorite thing about working at RaiseMe? The people I work with every day AKA Team Karl (Engineering)!

What sort of interesting challenges have you faced at RaiseMe? I got to be part of a small group of engineers tasked with building out our design system, a collection of shared React components and CSS classes. There were lots of challenges and learnings that came from this task since we didn’t have an internal precedent to follow. For example, one challenge we are currently facing is realizing that we coupled some of our form components too closely to a library that we have since moved away from.

What three emojis that best describe you TODAY? 🤷🏻‍♀️💤📖

What three emojis best describe you at age 16? 🏫😦💻

What’s on your reading list? I’ve recently finished The Power by Naomi Alderman, Fangirl, and Carry On, both by Rainbow Rowell. I’m currently reading Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson and The Mother of All Questions by Rebecca Solnit.

What’s your favorite podcast to listen to? I love Adulting. It’s hosted by Michelle Buteau and Jordan Carlos, and they’re hilarious which helps wake me up in the morning.

What’s one college course that you loved? I really loved Introduction to Art History, which was a required course for my Studio Art major, and initially, I was not looking forward to it at all. But I quickly discovered that I really enjoyed learning about all of the different major art movements and how they came about. Professor Knowles, who taught the class, was also an amazing lecturer. Her passion for art, and French art in particular, was inspiring. 

Want to learn more about working at RaiseMe? Check out our jobs page!

Mariah Gonzales

First and foremost, Mariah really loves snacks. She also loves people. She is a Teach for America alum turned ed-tech People Operations Manager with a side hustle co-leading RaiseMe’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy & programming.