CFA kicked off fall quarter reinvigorated and inspired by the success of this summer’s Pre-Apprenticeship program and exciting movement forward on all tracks of CFA’s initiatives. We welcomed new community, industry, and education partnerships; new staff, students, and industry mentors to CFA, and continued to expand our outreach, strategic thinking, and planning in our role as Cybersecurity/IT Intermediary for Washington state.
In local news, one of our Pre-apprenticeship graduates, Ksusha Gotham, was featured in a Seattle Times article on Career Connect Washington in early September that you can read here: https://www.seattletimes.com/sponsored/career-connected-learning-leads-to-student-success/.
Computing for All IT/Cybersecurity Sector Intermediary news
In our role as IT/Cybersecurity Sector Intermediary we continued our work last summer building sector-wide collaborative relationships and partnerships between employers, educators, and workforce organizations.
In June 2023, CFA created the Washington Tech Workforce Coalition. The goal of the Coalition is to add significant new talent to employers’ workforce needs by better preparing graduates with professional skills and on-the-job training to enter the workforce. We formed a Coalition Steering committee with industry, education, and community partners, and had an initial planning meeting in early June. We had another meeting in July of the Steering Committee to share Computing for All’s (CFA) strategy and proposed partnerships for our application for the Good Jobs Challenge grant.
In August, we started planning for the AWS Skilled Talent Job Fair: Powered by Computing for All and CFA organized job prep workshops with volunteer industry mentors for students attending the fair, in Resume Review, Elevator Pitch, and Mock Interviews.
Mandira Virmani sat on the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) Education Council in July to help plan the FullConTech event taking place in October. FullConTech is a unique event where industry professionals, government officials, and post-secondary institutions can come together to discuss solutions to the challenges facing the tech sector in Washington. People work together at this event to discover innovative solutions, collaborate with peers, and make an impact in the tech ecosystem in Washington and beyond. Mandira Virmani and Michael Gan moderated some great discussions for the Workforce track and Shannon Ladymon staffed another table and joined in discussions.
CFA designed a pilot program in partnership with Washington Bankers Association, the Career Connect Washington Finance Sector Intermediary, to recruit students with Cybersecurity and Cloud Computing skills from CTCs and training partners for in-demand IT roles in the banking/finance industry. The pilot will recruit learners and put them through the Understanding Banking Performance 16-hour course and then work with employers to get them placed into jobs/internships.
CFA Leadership team Ritu Bahl, Alka Manchanda, and Mandira Virmani along with new CFA project manager Michael Gan attended the Technology Alliance State of Technology Luncheon early last summer and were excited to see old friends and make new ones as well. They enjoyed listening to a wide-ranging conversation led by investor and entrepreneur Jonathan Sposato, the GeekWire chairman, Seattle Magazine owner/publisher, and JoySauce founder who spoke with T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert about tech and business in the Seattle area.
Good Jobs Challenge Grant
CFA put together a state-wide application for the Good Jobs Challenge grant late this summer to place 1000 diverse workers into upwardly mobile IT jobs. We met with regional networks and a number of training partners to discuss their ideas for participation in the GJC grant. We discussed training plans to place people into IT jobs, worked with partners to submit proposals for the statewide GJC application, and sent out the final RFI in July. The final list of partners will be determined once the grant award and amount of funding has been finalized and announced.
Pre-Apprenticeship summer in review
We had well over 80 applicants to our summer Pre-Apprenticeship program, but our current funding model limited us to accepting 42 students for this productive earn-while-you learn program. Most of our students were recommended to us by teachers, counselors, community and government programs, employer partners, or friends of previous students. We were happy to welcome 16 new students from our partners at the Seattle Youth Employment Project (SYEP) last summer as well. We enjoyed working with this great cohort of diverse, talented students and are happy that many of them were able to continue the Pre-Apprenticeship this fall and plan to complete the year-long Pre-Apprenticeship program. Our goal is to continue working to meet the challenge of building up more sustainable funding for student stipends so we can scale our program and accept increased numbers of students next year.
We welcomed Robert Bunge, North Seattle College’s IT Faculty Coordinator, as a mentor for Pre-Apprenticeship graduates who moved into our Last Mile program. The Last Mile is a hands-on, industry led, project building program that functions as a bridge between our Pre-Apprenticeship curriculum and employment. Bob enjoyed spending time talking with our students. He says, “The CFA Last Mile hands-on project experience curriculum is awesome.” He was impressed by the mentoring he observed from our volunteer mentor Roger Davenport, who works as a software engineer at Amazon, as well as the instruction and coaching by CFA instructor Jonathan Chan. He felt it was high quality instruction and a great curriculum model.
Many thanks to teen CFA volunteer Lee Winn who assisted students needing help with troubleshooting coding problems in our HTML/CSS class with CFA instructor Lynn Schirmer. Lee is a gifted front-end web developer and designer with full stack app development experience who has the ability to explain things clearly and patiently to his peers. Thanks go out to Lynn as she continues to enrich our curriculum by creating a number of engaging hands-on projects that include fun graphics and problem-solving.
We were happy to welcome back CFA graduate Bryan Orihuela who returned to CFA as a teaching assistant in August after completing the Per Scholas Software Development program. Bryan has continued to develop and expand his professional skills and is currently working as an Assistant Teacher fall quarter in our Python class. We also welcomed University of Washington student Arav Manchanda as a teaching assistant for the summer and greatly appreciated his CS knowledge, and his organizational and data tracking skills. Thanks also to CFA instructor Quincy Pham for is overseeing data tracking and more.
Overall last summer was a great combination of learning and practicing Python, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in exercises and projects, increasing awareness of tech career options, and updating our latest knowledge and skills in the field with input from our mentors and speakers. Given the virtual nature of our program, students were especially happy to visit Globant and Microsoft in person this summer. Not only did they get the benefit of the onsite visit, but they also got the added bonus of spending time together getting to know each other in person. Supporters and friends who attended our final presentation on August 15th got to see some awesome student website work and the students all appreciated everyone’s feedback.
Speakers, Mentors, and Employers
Thank you!
A heartfelt thanks and appreciation go out to both Bank of America and Amazon for the grants they each awarded us late this summer to support our work with the Pre-Apprenticeship students! The support we get from these community-minded partners helps make the work we do training low-income students possible.
We are grateful to the talented and community-minded industry mentors who visited our classroom to share their wisdom in the tech field and their career journey stories. Many thanks to Haley Tuttle from Autodesk who spoke on UX Design, Kevin Shah from T-Mobile spoke on the life cycle of a project and project management, Russel Stewart from Comcast spoke about developing software for communication apps, Chris Emory from 98point6 Inc spoke about Digital Health Technologies, and Kathy Ahuja from The Kalles Group spoke on cyber security job roles.
Thanks also to our Seattle Bank of America partners Stephen Yeager and Michael Bailey for visiting our classroom to offer our IT Pre-Apprenticeship students a Better Money Habits workshop. They did a terrific job presenting financial literacy education alongside technical and career-oriented education and plan to continue offering this workshop to each of our new cohorts. Students were appreciative of the presentation’s practical advice and information, student feedback comments included:
“The presentation was well put together, I found it very helpful to learn more about how to build your credit score, student loans, and more about credit cards; all very helpful since you don’t learn these things in school.”
Farheen
“The presentation offered deep insight into necessary financial topics we aren’t taught in an academic setting. Their explanations on credit scores, the key differences between various payment plans, and general financial advice allow me to confidently say I’m better prepared for the future.”
Rajbir
“It was a good introduction for those of us who have little to no knowledge on these topics.”
Michelle D.
Pre-Apprenticeship
The Last Mile Challenge
A huge shout out and thank you to our awesome brilliant mentor Roger Davenport, a software engineer at Amazon, who gave of his time and knowledge to provide a challenge project to the CFA Pre-Apprenticeship graduates who participated in our Last Mile program. The Last Mile is a hands-on, industry led, project building program that functions as a bridge between our Pre-Apprenticeship curriculum and employment. A team of students built a website according to Roger’s specifications utilizing full stack software development skills and knowledge with stretch goals to achieve when they finished the basic site. Roger dropped by once a week to take stock of where the students were at with the project, ask and answer questions, troubleshoot bugs, and coach. Thanks also to our CFA instructor Jonathan Chan who provided advanced skills training needed for the students to achieve the project goals. This bridge program helps ready CFA Pre-apprenticeship graduates for industry internships, enrollment into Apprenti’s Apprenticeship program, a college/university, or an entry level job and also provides them with a professional team project for their individual portfolios.
Globant Onsite Tour
Thank you to Globant for inviting our students for an onsite tour with Q and A!
On July 20th the CFA Pre-Apprenticeship students visited Globant, an international company that designs and develops application software and provides cloud computing services to companies worldwide.
Students toured the Globant Seattle office space guided by terrific hosts Amy Nygaard & Cam Daly, helped themselves to sandwiches from the kitchen, and then enjoyed a Q&A Mentorship Session Roundtable with Globant experts. Students loved the practical, positive, and encouraging advice they received. Many thanks to Amy and Cam, and awesome Globanteer mentors Bill Bronske, Alex Southwell, Joe Panciera, Juan David Ramirez, Nahuel Franchi, Alex Hui, and more.
Students shared their high points of the trip to Globant:
“Globant’s atmosphere was an example of what a company with a positive work environment should look like. Everyone on the Globant team came from completely different backgrounds, yet they were similar in their passion for the tech industry and computer science. This made me excited because it means that in the future, and just like at CFA, I’ll always be working and collaborating with individuals who have different experiences than mine. One thing that I learned was that when we are looking to apply for a job, we should look for one in which we don’t entirely meet all the requirements. Taking on a job should allow us to grow and never leave us stagnant in our journeys.
“I want to give a shoutout to Globanteer Kim in particular because when I introduced myself and mentioned that my passion for tech stemmed from building a PC from scratch, she related to me and added that the beginning of her tech journey was also initiated from a similar experience (dismantling a PC). It helped me become more confident since there were a lot of people in the room and I’m not much of a speaker! So thank you to Kim for that and all of the knowledge she shared.
Kinza
“I gained insight on interviews and resumes from an employer point of view; some things which I wouldn’t have guessed! I also learned how an office dynamic works (post pandemic), and also more about their job roles.”
Samantha
“The speakers at Globant spent time validating the insecurities that most people face in the industry and made us feel more comfortable with it by describing their own experiences with it.”
Rajbir
“The company atmosphere was amazing; friendly, welcoming, and warm!”
Yahya
“I think what stood out the most to me was how relaxed and “at home” Globant employees looked/sounded during the meeting. They were relaxed, talkative, and weren’t stiff. They provided a great look at what it’s like working in a supportive work environment.”
Jian
“My high point of the day was talking with the Globant employees and listening to their stories and experiences. Each of them had different backgrounds and stories that led them to working at Globant. Everyone was very insightful when answering our questions.”
Gordon
“I enjoyed speaking with Bill about how to prepare myself for a career in AI, and Joe’s personal journey inspired me to keep pushing myself.”
Damien
All of the students had great feedback on their experience visiting Globant and we are very grateful to Amy, and all who took their time to share their experiences and answer questions. It was an inspiriting and positive experience.
Microsoft Onsite Tour
Our thanks to Microsoft manager Pius Timothy Gonzalvo for speaking to our students in our classroom, inviting us and then organizing student transportation, lunches, speakers, career prep workshops, and onsite tours of Microsoft’s Bellevue campus.
Students were able to visit Microsoft not once, not twice, but THREE times, and it was amazing all three days. Many thanks to Microsoft for extending the invitation for us to attend these summer camp workshops. Our Microsoft visits took place in mid-August as the Pre-Apprenticeship program was wrapping up for the summer, allowing most of our students to attend at least two or three days. Everyone got a lot out of the experience.
Microsoft summer Internships
Congratulations to our Pre-Apprenticeship high school grads who got accepted to the Microsoft Discovery internship program. We held two series of resume and interview workshops for high school students from our Pre-Apprenticeship program and Renton School district’s Cybersecurity Career Launch program, to help students apply and get ready for the Microsoft Discovery internship.
CFA Program Managers Alka Manchanda, Mandira Virmani, and Education Manager Leslie Howle enjoyed working with students, helping them prepare to apply for the Microsoft Discovery internship program.
We met with students in small groups to provide detailed information about the internship application process, and then met with them to individually review their resumes and applications, and once they applied, we arranged practice interviews with volunteer mentors. We found student applicants to be both talented and motivated and we were excited to be a Microsoft sponsored organization and take part in preparing them for this amazing opportunity.
Sixteen students signed up for the workshops and 8 were accepted into the program. Alka and Mandira were invited to Microsoft on July 19 to meet with interns and join a fireside chat with the VP Kate Behncken.
Educator Spotlight: Robert Bunge
& Computing for All/North Seattle College Internship program
Our thanks to Robert Bunge, North Seattle College’s IT Faculty Coordinator, for partnering with CFA on an internship program for his North Seattle College IT students.
When counseling students who want to get into IT careers at North Seattle College, Bob emphasizes taking college classes, testing to gain technical certifications, and getting as much hands-on practical experience as possible. While the first two options are readily attained through academic endeavors, hands-on tech experience is harder to get for students. In meetings with CFA, Bob realized that a hands-on internship program at CFA could provide a way for students to earn practical learning opportunities. He initiated a limited, quarter-long summer internship for five NSC students.
Over the summer, CFA hosted a group of five volunteer interns from North Seattle College to help us develop our student portal and data using insights from their own experiences. With CFA’s Shannon Ladymon and Dharam Yadav providing oversight and management, students Gary Larson, Yue Li, Taylor Papke, Joshua Bordallo, and E. Brink worked with CFA engineers to learn to use our tech stack, including Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Apps, and Power BI, and deepened their knowledge of UI/UX, APIs, and web development.
They worked for 8-10 weeks over the summer, attending daily stand-ups and resolving tickets assigned to them by the developer team to build improvements to our student portal. Shannon notes how impressed she was with the dedication, teamwork, and enthusiasm that these volunteers brought to the internship. At the end of the summer the interns each gave presentations of the work they had accomplished over the summer.
Gary Larson joined the CFA team after his internship to continue his work on developing the systems and processes we use to serve students. Not only was Gary hired to work with CFA in an expanded role this fall, yet another intern was hired as a professional software developer for an outside company following the internship, which Bob feels is proof that the hands-on learning concept worked well.
Gary says, “My summer internship was a great opportunity to learn Microsoft Power Apps. As a student we do not have access to this software. CFA’s development team was very supportive, and I felt like I learned a lot regarding both customized plug-in creation and web resources. I really enjoyed working with their team and was asked to come back for an extended internship in the fall. It has been a very insightful and worthy experience.”
Watch a 2-minute video where our interns talk about why the internship was important to them:
Bob is working with CFA to create a more institutional framework around this concept, building a “Project Factory” where students can build community and gain experience around project-based learning opportunities. Bob is looking to partner with nonprofits who have projects that support social justice causes. This model will be attractive to students wanting to look at alternative models of tech in society through IT.
Bob believes that the model of paid apprenticeships for students is ideal, but the challenge is that we have more students than we have opportunities. Unlike paid work-based learning models such as those in Switzerland and Germany, we don’t have an established national system in the US. In the meantime, we need to do something for the students who aren’t able to find a paid internship or apprenticeship right away. Many so-called entry level jobs advertised require experience, and that’s hard to achieve for those who are just starting out on their career. Creating pro-bono internship projects for nonprofits allows students to gain experience while doing social good.
DSHS DVR Coding Workshops
In partnership with the Washington State Department of Social and Health services Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, CFA teaching staff offered Game Design Coding Workshops for King County high school students who qualify for an Individualized Education Program or have a documented disability. Students could join a one or two week workshop which ran in June and August. The workshops are a great way to introduce coding skills and concepts, as well as to build self confidence. Students seemed to really enjoy the workshops. Many thanks to Holly Montana, our DSHS liaison social worker, for all her help and support in making these workshops successful.
Thanks for catching up on our summer news recap! We will be posting our year-end review that includes our latest news and partnerships in December, so stay in touch. We would love for you to engage with us, please get in touch with us if you have any ideas for partnering.