Giving Underprivileged Kids A Future In Tech

January 21st, 2015

I posted yesterday about RailsBridge, which “teaches people to code because we believe that the people making technology should accurately reflect the diversity of those using it.” Below, Wired reports on another organization that is actively promoting careers in technology, which trains and places kids in paid tech internships to help them work for their future.

In The Nonprofit That’s Giving Underprivileged Kids Jobs in Tech Companies, Davey Alba writes about Genesys Works, a nonprofit founded in 2002 and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, that has been applauded by President Obama.

Genesys recruits high schoolers from groups underrepresented in the tech world, including low-income kids […], and then it places them in paid internships with IT departments inside local companies. The hope is that exposure to both computers and corporate culture—with adult mentors providing guidance—will put these students on the path to a technology-related college career.

Dedicated to “Bridging the gap between education and business” Genesys Works has trained and placed thousands of students in IT departments of local corporations (e.g., they served over 300 students in 2009, working in over 50 major corporations). Check out their informative video, below: