Student Diversity is Key for Learning

Over the last two years, I've had the pleasure of partnering with Atlassian University to provide a wide range of training, including in-person courses, virtual courses, and even being the voice of Planning with Portfolio for Jira. If I had to count, I've likely delivered training to close to 1000 students since 2017 as an Atlassian Certified Instructor, but this week was a first – one of my students was blind. 

With 2020 just weeks away, expectations are high. It’s the beginning of a new decade, with many foreseeing it to be a monumental year. Japan is expected to build a robotic moon base, the U.S. military pledged to get half of its energy from renewable resources, and Costa Rica will near the finish line of becoming a carbon-neutral country.

Here at Praecipio Consulting, we are passionate about our interactions with others - colleagues, clients, and of course family and friends. We are grateful and thankful for what we have and the opportunities we are given to make an impact – from a personal or business perspective. 

On Friday, November 22, 2019, Praecipio Consulting co-hosted a tree planting event with Austin City Parks and Recreation Department (Urban Forestry Division), and TreeFolks at Civitan Park. TreeFolks’ mission “is to empower Central Texans to build strong communities through planting and caring for trees” and has also “engaged thousands of volunteers to plant more than 2.8 million trees” over the past 30 years. They have been involved in community-building events centered around pillars such as reforestation, education, and growing the urban forest. Their name tells you all you need to know about their fervor for making the Earth happier and our climate more stable by planting one tree at a time. 

Atlassian, the developer of Jira, has a wide variety of products. If you're here, you're probably wondering about a few specifically:

Next April will mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, but we just couldn't wait six more months to share our company’s exciting news—starting November 1, 2019, Praecipio Consulting's Work from Home policy is changing. Beginning October 14, "Work From Work" is optional with the exception of two important days of the month. In addition, our workspace is transforming into a much smaller, more intentional workspace emphasizing climate responsibility and a more fulfilling and sustainable workstyle. The company will facilitate, enable and encourage more meaningful interactions; going for quality over quantity of face time; reducing the cost to the environment and cost of our team members' time and money. These are major changes due to our choice to operate in a way that supports our Global Climate Crisis Response Plan - all in an effort to reduce our company’s overall carbon footprint. Our Global Climate Crisis Response Plan was shared internally at Praecipio Consulting at the end of October and will be shared more widely shortly thereafter.

New phone, who dis?

On a random Sunday, my husband surprised me by forcing me into the AT&T Store. You see, I had recently been struggling with my phone recently and although it was still a great phone, it just wasn't as fast as I needed it to be. My Bluetooth was sketchy at best, I had to use headphones or the speaker for phone calls, and my battery life meant I carried a backup battery everywhere. At almost four years old, I was carrying a dinosaur. I picked out my new iPhone Xs Max and started the data transfer process.

Praecipio Consulting has been an active member of Pledge 1%, the movement to build corporate philanthropy, since 2015. The mission-driven non-profit asks members to pledge 1% of equity, 1% of time, and 1% of profits to a variety of charitable causes. Praecipio Consulting has fostered on-going relationships with the Colorado River Alliance, Dam that Cancer, TreeFolks, and the Coastal Conservation Association, to name a few, since becoming involved with the Pledge 1% initiative.