Grant from Cognizant U.S. Foundation will fund training for 150 students in Manhattan.

June 24, 2019 – Today, Civic Hall and Per Scholas officially launched a pilot technology training program for New York City non-profit agencies and residents, with funding from the Cognizant U.S. Foundation. Administered by Per Scholas, a nationally-recognized non-profit and professional development organization, the program will train 150 individuals in next-generation technology to help them find employment in the New York City area. The results of this initial pilot will be used to develop additional program offerings as part of a larger digital learning initiative backed by Civic Hall, and hosted in the new Civic Hall @ Union Square technology hub.

The first cohort of students will participate in an 18-week Programming Basics and Application Developer course, where they will be introduced to the fundamentals of Java development and learn how to build and deliver quality applications. The pilot program will be held in the Flatiron District at General Assembly.

“This partnership and pilot are essential to ensuring that the future workers of our city are able to keep up with the rapidly changing needs of the 21st century economy,” said Andrew Rasiej, Founder and CEO, Civic Hall.”Our vision for Civic Hall @ Union Square is to create a new institution to provide up to date digital training systems in support of our surrounding communities in partnership with the Cognizant U.S. Foundation & Per Scholas.”

Future classes born from this partnership will be developed to coincide with the opening of Civic Hall @ Union Square, a new technology innovation hub that will include a 40,000 sq. ft. Digital Learning Center. The space, heralded by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and unanimously approved by the City Council, will be completed in 2020.

“We see firsthand the ever-growing need for technical talent in today’s workforce,” said Allen Shaheen, Board Member, Cognizant U.S. Foundation. “And today, we are thrilled to help bring new training programs and new opportunities to people across New York City.”

“Today marks an important milestone in our work to equip communities with the skills and experience to thrive in today’s economy,” said Kristen Titus, Executive Director, Cognizant U.S. Foundation. “With this launch, we are excited to make technology training programs available to communities across New York—and open pathways to technology jobs everywhere.”

“The opportunity that this partnership has provided New Yorkers is insurmountable,” said Plinio Ayala, CEO of Per Scholas. “Members of this program will be fully equipped to stand up to the growing need for specialized tech talent in today’s workforce, and I’m very eager to watch them excel.”

A kick-off event will be held on Tuesday, June 25, from 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM at Civic Hall to celebrate the launch of the program. There, the incoming class will have the opportunity to network with Per Scholas alumni and representatives from Civic Hall, Per Scholas, and Cognizant U.S. Foundation.

Interested in joining us?

Our next Application Developer course is currently accepting applications for its September 16th cohort. To learn more about this program, please visit https://www.platformbyps.org/nyc/application-developer and apply today!

About Per Scholas

Per Scholas is a national nonprofit that drives positive and proven social change in communities across the country. Through rigorous and tuition-free technology training and professional development, we prepare motivated and curious adults who are unemployed or underemployed for successful careers as technology professionals, and we create onramps to businesses in need of their talents. Today we provide our solutions in eight cities across the country and to date, Per Scholas has enrolled 10,000 individuals, helping them build lasting, life changing skills and careers in technology.

About Civic Hall

Civic Hall is the nation’s leading center for learning and collaboration focused on advancing technology and problem solving for the public good. Our mission is to embed civic values where technology and society meet, and help people discover powerful new ways to embody those values in their work and life. At Civic Hall, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, government staff, community organizers, philanthropists, software developers, data scientists, and media makers come together to share knowledge and solve pressing public interest problems.

About the Cognizant U.S. Foundation

The Cognizant U.S. Foundation is a 501(c)(3) private foundation supporting STEM education and skills training across the United States. Launched in 2018 with an initial $100 million investment from Cognizant, the Foundation has since awarded $12 million to organizations working to educate and train the next generation of workers in communities throughout the U.S.

In 2016, the country of Cameroon erupted with a series of protests that led the country into a civil war. Tensions escalated, as did the death toll as a result of mounting conflict. Thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean in Boston, Massachusetts, Justice Abinyui Muh, a Global Health Corps fellow conducting research abroad at the time, bore witness to his home country’s civil uprising from a distance.

Justice was about to become one of the millions of refugees from across the globe who have been displaced due to crisis and conflict, and would have to begin the daunting task of rebuilding his life and career.

Prior to completing his fellowship, Justice worked at the Limbe Regional Hospital in Southwest Cameroon to implement a software to manage HIV data. “For many patients that I met in this hospital, it was their suffering from the disease that they were most aware of — they wanted to be healed by any means possible,” he wrote in a 2017 Medium blog post.

As political tensions grew in Cameroon, Justice worried for his family, friends, and the nation overall, and weighed his options returning home. He was an activist back in Cameroon, however, during this time, the government sought out all activists who spoke out against their policies. Although his fellowship supported him for a year, his visa was not enough to support his stay in the states beyond the tenure of his fellowship. With all that remained behind, separated by an ocean, Justice applied for asylum and sought refuge in the United States.

Efforts to fully ground himself proved challenging. After his fellowship, Justice moved to Washington, D.C. and stayed with a friend, spending his days researching jobs in the information technology sector. Even with a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, and a Bachelor’s of Engineering in Information Technology, Justice struggled to secure a job, especially one that matched his technical experience and interests. Likening his job search to that of a “full-time job,” his savings was slowly shrinking and his approaches to finding work and starting a new life in America were proving fruitless.

“What was wrong? What am I doing in this country? How do I get a job, and what happens if I spend this money and run out of it?” Justice became greatly frustrated, not expecting his work history experiences and advanced education to be so hard to apply to prospective work opportunities.

Fueled by his frustration, Justice researched online how other immigrants might have experienced difficulty integrating into the United States and discovered Upwardly Global—a national nonprofit that helps newcomers integrate into the professional workforce. He enrolled in their courses and realized how truly different was the job market in the United States.

“I knew I needed a coach, assistance with getting a job. I learned how to present myself differently to hiring managers,” Justice reflects, learning to distinguish himself not just as someone who needed a job but as a fully competent individual with the skills and experience to do the work successfully. “Upwardly Global was an organization that bridged the gap with applying to jobs and improving my communications with recruiters.” An encouraging meeting with Bethany, his career coach at Upwardly Global who remained confident in his career prospects, proposed that Justice apply to Per Scholas to seek further specialized technical training.

Reading up on the many student success stories from Per Scholas alumni, Justice decided to enroll at Platform by Per Scholas in Dallas, Texas. He moved to Texas in January 2018 and started classes that March.

During his first week at Per Scholas, Justice was still concerned about his prospects finding a job once he completed his training. As his technical background lent well to his ability to navigate the coursework comfortably, Justice tried to focus more on establishing a strong network of friends and colleagues. He made himself available to his other classmates, helping them to understand the coursework. He even collaborated with them from time to time on how to apply for jobs once they graduated, thinking through how to review and complete applications and how to network effectively. What was most important, for both Justice and his peers, was to know that they were not alone, and that they could support one another through this process.

When Justice graduated from Per Scholas, he once again applied for jobs. This time, with an industry recognized certification in tow, combined with his newly found confidence, Justice walked into interviews and presented his best self. The calls came in, as did the offers. After what felt like a long journey, Justice was hired at a leading global professional service company. Finally, he had a job, and not just a job, but an opportunity to launch a career in his field with a Fortune 500 company.

Though he finally found employment, when asked what was next, Justice, always forward thinking, replied that he would focus on being the best he could be where he is at now, often times creating and setting work learning plans to educate himself further in the areas of quality assurance and engineering. Unfortunately, the war in Cameroon is still ongoing, and contact with his family remains nonexistent to this day. Justice might not have assumed that he would discover his best self a world over, but he chose to discover himself where he is at now, and that alone is a process of which to be proud.

Last November, Champion Partner JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced a $1 million philanthropic commitment to Per Scholas as part of the corporation’s overall $6 million investment towards the New Skills for Youth Initiative (NSFY) in the Bronx. This national campaign, which launched in 2016, strengthens career readiness approaches by building high-quality career pathways that close critical skills gaps and provides youth with on-ramps to post-secondary training and education beyond high school.