Hack the Hood Deepens our Commitment to Learners' Long Term Success
Orientation day with the cohort of drive: Laney leaners and Hack the Hood team.
drive it
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drive it 〰️
After a year of co-designing and visioning, in partnership with Laney Community College, we officially kicked off our first career cohort “Drive: Laney” with a great start!
We are excited to work with learners more profoundly in this career pathway program. This is the first time Hack the Hood will be with learners for a full 12-months providing holistic support for self-paced Python and data analytics instruction, mentorship from tech professionals, monthly career development workshops, skill building opportunities and community building with their peers. We are intentionally providing ample support so that this cohort of learners can maximize this opportunity to gain career-building certifications and degrees from Laney Community College or transfer to a four year university.
drive: Laney infographic
We co-designed this model with Laney to create a more structured learning and career pathway, guiding Hack the Hood Alumni to level up in their professional development and lead them into a paid internship and or apprenticeship in the tech industry. This experience will help establish confidence in our learners, inspire them to pursue an Associate Degree, and or certificate in Computer Information Systems. Find out more about our programs here.
We’re excited to share a few highlights about our new talented cohort of 27 learners:
They come from communities that are currently underrepresented in tech but have immense potential to lend valuable perspective to tech design. 44% are Black/African American, 44% are Latinx or Hispanic, and 11% are Asian, Pacific Islander or Native.
They are all Bay Area based, tapping into the immense pool of talent that our tech community risks losing out on unless we create and support more equitable pathways into tech learning and careers
Eight are alumni of Hack the Hood’s introductory tech learning programs, and have been inspired to continue their tech learning journeys.
We are excited to invest in this cohort’s future as these are the BIPOC learners we aim to empower with technology and data skill sets they need to become the generation of ethical stewards of technology.
We would like to thank the Catalyze Challenge funders, Westly Foundation and AT&T for their financial support, which allowed us to launch this 12-month career program for our learners.
If you have an interest in working with one of these learners as a mentor, please fill out this form here or email mayra@hackthehood.org. If you are interested in getting involved with Hack the Hood more generally as a volunteer or donor, please check out our get involved page here.
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