The Allstate Fellows Program Partners with Per Scholas

The Allstate Foundation, a Founder’s Circle partner of Per Scholas, has funded our cost-free tech training programs since 2021. The Foundation proudly supports Per Scholas through its racial equity program. Our partnership will allow Per Scholas to provide rigorous IT job training and connections to employment opportunities for diverse adult learners from low-to-moderate income households across seventeen of our training campuses and has additionally extended to include us in their Fellows program.

The Allstate Fellows program is a skills-based volunteer initiative designed to strengthen the nonprofit community and invest in the professional development of Allstate employees. The program helps nonprofits address critical organizational challenges in a wide variety of areas by matching them with skilled employees for 3-month volunteer projects, leveraging employees’ professional expertise while addressing nonprofit needs. 

Recently, the Allstate Fellows program, in partnership with Common Impact, identified a Fellow to work with Per Scholas on strategy and cross-functional projects. Our Fellow, Gina Pell, conducted external research, created criteria for assessment and provided recommendations to help Per Scholas determine the conditions under which we would want to establish our own apprenticeship programs vs. partner with other nonprofits and/or companies to expand opportunities. The Allstate Fellows program ran from March through June and involved three phases of work centered around data collection, insights synthesis, and guidance for our path forward; and was ultimately an innovative way to get involved as one of our partners. 

In pairing Per Scholas with our Fellow, Allstate ensured that our Fellow had the necessary business skills needed to provide strong recommendations and had experience in business development, market research, business analysis, and cost-benefit analysis. 

“Our Fellow jumped in at a critical time when we needed to do a lot of learning very quickly,” remarked Alanna Hughes, Vice President of Innovation at Per Scholas. “She put in an immense amount of work to expand our knowledge and inform our decision-making, and leave us with materials we will continue to use. She was also so collaborative, committed to our mission, and receptive to guidance as she worked within a new subject area. We are truly grateful for the opportunity to work with her.”

We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with The Allstate Foundation and their skills-based volunteerism with Per Scholas and look forward to the implementation of our apprenticeship program planning recommendations from our Fellow. To get in touch with us for volunteer opportunities, email Miguelina Manriquez.