As we step into a new normal, there’s one aspect of our pandemic lives we won’t be leaving behind: technology. Digital platforms and tools are more important than ever to businesses and organizations. Employers are increasingly looking for — and promoting — people who understand the full potential of technology to accelerate workplace success.

How tech savvy are you, and how can you build on that skill set? Here are some steps to get you started.

For Tyler Rust, the Black Hills region of South Dakota was a natural geology lab. As a boy he camped in the Badlands with his grandfather, studying the astonishing formations and fossils. “From then on I had a persistent yearning to understand myself and my place in the universe,” he says. 

Rust and his mom moved around a lot. When they were living with his mother’s parents, his grandfather taught him Lakota traditions and language. Eventually Rust and his mother moved to Black Hawk, S.D.

Julia Blue Bird is curious about a lot of things. She has earned three master’s degrees, one in electrical engineering from the University of Southern Florida and two from Columbia University in philosophy and astronomy and in astrophysics. But these days her curiosity is focused on galaxy evolution over cosmic time as she completes her PhD in astrophysics at Columbia.