“Get ready to generate immediate impact. There’s a need to create a pipeline for diversity in tech,” explains MEDA Workforce Development Manager Marisela Perez-Ruiz of the exciting challenge awaiting her team’s new technology training coordinator, once hired to spearhead the Mission Techies program.
This free twelve-week program puts young adults (ages 17 to 24) on the pathway to a career in tech. Think software engineer. IT specialist. Coder.
Results
The results have been many in just a little over three years.
The success stories
Client success stories put faces on the numbers.
Immigrant Edwin Gonzales (photo, top) came to the U.S. with the dream of turning his love of all things computer into a career in tech. He quickly discovered it was more challenging than he thought, winding up as a busboy. Fast forward a few years and the Mission Techies graduate is now permanently employed with Mission-based Jones IT, bringing his newfound expertise to innumerable clients.
Then there’s Bayview-Hunters Point native Jordan Wood, who came to MEDA after having been rejected from YearUp due to his juvenile criminal record. After graduating Mission Techies, polishing his interview/job skills, and advocacy on his behalf, Jordan was accepted into YearUp, landing a Facebook internship that led to a full-time job there.
William López, showcased in the video below, was always taking apart computers. Now he gets paid well to do so. (Video).
The need
There is a definite need to level the playing field and create opportunity for underresourced young adults, especially in communities of color concentrated in the southeastern quadrant of San Francisco.
A June 17, 2016 San Francisco Business Times front-cover story, complemented by an inspiring video, stated that MEDA’s free Mission Techies program was “shining a light on how the technology industry might address its well-documented problems with diversity and economic inclusion at the same time it tackles its worker shortage.”
Are you ready to transform lives? Are you a fan of all thing tech, know how to inspire youth and are ready to take Mission Techies to the next level? Apply today!
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