Angel Hursey

Feeling complacent in a career in healthcare, Angel Hursey knew she needed to make a career change to stop chasing a paycheck and start chasing her passion in coding.  At first, she became a stay-at-home mom but in 2018, she applied to Per Scholas for the Application Support Management training and started herself on the path to a career in technology, something she had always considered given its growth opportunity at the time.  

Angel had previously started college but knew instantly that it wasn’t the route for education for her. She knew exactly what she wanted to do for her career and wanted to skip all the “fluff” courses and get straight to learning about coding and tech. Reflecting back on her training at Per Scholas, Angel knew that it was a perfect fit for her. “Going through the training – it was vigorous and challenging,” she reflected. “If I didn’t have the support from the Per Scholas team and fellow learners, I would have probably given up.” 

Following graduation, Angel sent out emails and applications for various positions and was able to have something to show of her training with her portfolio and class project. In her first job following graduation, Angel was the first woman in her IT department, a huge personal accomplishment.  Once brought on in that role, she sat down with two CEO’s to discuss what to do to bring more women into the department.  “It was a big partnership to bring that awareness to them and talk about what we can do to attract more women into these roles,” she mentioned. Now, Angel is a Web Developer in a government role, which drastically changed her salary from $30k annually working in healthcare to $70k annually at the start of her career in tech. 

In collaboration with a fellow learner, Jeremy Chappell, Angel started a nonprofit organization, i3 Project, which partners with other local nonprofits to teach youth and individuals in urban, low-income communities how to code. She hopes to make an impact with young people interested in tech based on the preparation and training she received at Per Scholas.  Given her experience as one of the few women in tech in her area and first position, she also looks to use her nonprofit to raise awareness for women in the tech workforce.