Per Scholas’ collaboration with AWS and our ability to offer AWS re/Start, a high-quality cloud computing curriculum, is incredibly powerful. Cloud computing continues to be one of the fastest-growing areas of tech, and we’re proud of the role we’re playing to train diverse technologists in this in-demand skill set.

We started our cloud computing training by offering AWS re/Start at our Greater Boston campus in 2020. The pandemic forced us to quickly pivot what would’ve been an in-person course to be remote instead. AWS’s leadership and guidance as we modified the curriculum were essential. This shift to remote learning had a silver lining and enabled us to enroll learners in our inaugural cohort from our National Capital Region campus, too. 

Today, just two years later, Per Scholas is offering AWS re/Start training at 9 campuses nationwide, including at Per Scholas Dallas, Per Scholas Greater Boston, Per Scholas National Capital Region, and Per Scholas New York. We’re working to prepare nearly 400 future technologists in this in-demand skill set in 2022 alone! 

Earlier this month, Per Scholas Senior Vice President of Training Quality, Technology, and Innovation Eduardo Hernandez spoke at AWS IMAGINE: NONPROFIT alongside AWS re/Start Program Manager Seghen Simon about our training model. 

During the panel, Eduardo highlighted that since we began offering AWS re/Start, nearly 300 cloud computing technologists have graduated, and more than 90 percent earned the prestigious, highly-sought-after AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification. Half have attained jobs, and a third in specific cloud-computing roles at more than 55 companies nationwide.

Alongside 16 other organizations, Per Scholas Baltimore recently received a groundbreaking grant from the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Employment Development (OED) as part of the Train Up initiative. The initiative provides free job training for unemployed and underemployed Baltimore City residents impacted by COVID-19 and is funded through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). It is 

Per Scholas Baltimore will enroll 45 Baltimore City residents participants annually in our cost-free tech training, ensure that at least 75 percent of our learners will complete training, and connect at least 80 percent of our graduates into family-sustaining careers paying a minimum of $15 per hour. All participants completing training will obtain at least one industry-recognized credential. 

In regard to Train Up, Baltimore City Mayor Brandon M. Scott stated, “I look forward to working closely with the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development as we increase access to opportunity, promote local job growth, support low-income households, benefit historically underinvested neighborhoods and create wealth in Black and Brown communities.”

As Per Scholas Baltimore prepares Baltimore City residents for careers in technology, a high-growth industry, we will also provide our learners with career coaching and business and professional development. Upcoming courses offered at our campus in Little Italy can be found here.  

“We are grateful for the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development’s investment in Per Scholas Baltimore, which will enable us to continue to serve Baltimore City residents with no-cost technical training,” stated Per Scholas Baltimore Managing Director Jessica Diaz Council. “We are actively trying to change the face of the tech workforce nationally, but also locally. If you are a company that serves the people of Baltimore, then you should be employing local talent. We’re committed to increasing access and creating opportunities for individuals who aspire to work in tech because we truly believe that the right career changes everything. The Train Up program will allow us to do just that.”

To learn more about the Train Up program from the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, click here. 

In this brief from MDRC, a company committed to finding solutions to some of the most difficult problems facing the nation, it is shown that investigating lived experiences for data is crucial for Per Scholas’s admissions process.

As the brief states, “People with lived expertise can include individuals or families enrolled in or eligible for a program of interest, service practitioners who work directly with these individuals and families, and community leaders. Such people have a wealth of knowledge about the social issues and programs that are studied, derived from their own experiences.”

Learn how Per Scholas has worked closely with MDRC research to provide a better admissions process experience to drive more completed applications in this brief and read the full document.

During Black History Month, Per Scholas has been proud to engage in various internal and external activities to communicate the importance of Black individuals in the tech workplace. Keeping the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s (ASALH) theme of Black Health and Wellness in mind, we focused on wellness throughout our Black History Month celebrations and meetings and resurfaced some key conversations from our Diverse by Design podcast. 

 Throughout the month, we shared stories of some of our Black learners on our social media pages, highlighting their experience as Black individuals in an industry they’ve previously been underrepresented. Namely, we resurfaced the story of Per Scholas National Capital Region graduate Serge Mavuba. Serge, an AWS re/Start graduate, had some challenges throughout his training that he opened up about with us in a candid interview. He discussed how mental health is not typically discussed in his culture, especially as a Black man. Serge reflected, “mental health wasn’t discussed in my culture; it was taboo. I didn’t know what I needed, but with the Learner Support Team, I was able to recognize my triggers and implement ways to redirect my emotions to push through the day.” He was able to help himself by seeking help and sharing his thoughts with others, one of the ways to address mental health. By sharing his story, he gave Black individuals an opportunity to start the conversation on wellness in the Black community.

Internally, Per Scholas shared different experiences from our team and hosted a virtual lunch centered around mental health and wellness.  Kiva Harper, LCSW-S joined us to discuss mental health, wellness tips, and how to be more compassionate towards others.  Her insight helped open up the conversation for our team on wellness and mental health for Black individuals.  

Lastly, we resurfaced some of our Diverse by Design Podcast episodes featuring Black leaders to showcase their stories and experiences.  Franklin Reed, Chair of Diverse by Design’s National Advisory Board and Executive Director of Inclusion and Diversity at TEKsystems, walked through the mechanics of operationalizing diversity and inclusion within an organization in his featured podcast.  Another podcast we shared again was that of Shawn Harris, Success Engineer at Cypress.io, where she reflected on her experience as a recent cancer survivor, Black woman, and proud member of the LGBTQ+ family. Listen as she thinks back on her experience with inclusion and belonging in tech.

We are honored that we were able to further explore and celebrate the stories and experiences of our learners, staff, and partners this Black History Month as we continue to highlight diversity in our organization.  

It has already been a busy year of graduations at Per Scholas, with multiple graduations from IT Support, AWS re/Start, Cybersecurity, and Software Engineering courses coming to a close and many more coming up. As we look to train 4,000 learners in 2022, we are well on our way with astonishing numbers from our skilled and qualified graduates. So far, Per Scholas has graduated more than 250 learners, with over 150 graduates acquiring tech certifications.  

“The tenacity and commitment of Per Scholas learners is inspiring, and I’m thrilled for our graduates as they embark on transformational tech careers,” said Jasmine Miller, who was recently promoted to Per Scholas’s Chief Training Officer. 

Notably, our remote training cohorts had learners from New York, Cincinnati, Denver, Greater Boston, and the National Capital Region successfully graduate from our AWS re/Start course. Chubb Executive Vice President and Digital Transformation Officer Julie Dillman joined as graduation speaker.  This graduating cohort hosted over 70 graduates with an average certification rate of over 94%!  

Additionally, we graduated our first two cohorts as part of our satellite partnership.  With over 30 graduates from our innovative satellite training program, we are well on our way to training  1,000 New Yorkers this year.  In this partnership, Per Scholas is teaming up with Commonpoint Queens and with the JCC of Staten Island as Satellite partners in order to offer these trainings in Queens and Staten Island respectively. Commonpoint Queens hosted the course at its Elmhurst Employment Hub and JCC of Staten Island at its Bernikow Headquarters.  

In another Remote Training graduation, with learners from our National Capital Region, Denver, New York, Boston, Cincinnati, and North Carolina campuses, over 100 graduates completed their IT Support training to launch their thriving tech careers. Eugene Jones, Director of ITS at Comcast, spoke as a keynote speaker, encouraging graduates to always keep learning – in tech and in life. 

With support from our funders, brilliant and empowering Instructors, and a strong Learner Support Team, our learners are sure to excel in their next endeavors as they launch their IT careers.  We are eager to see how the year continues on with such a successful start as we connect individuals who have a passion for technology with thriving technology careers. 

In Roger Low’s opinion piece, Support Job-Training Programs that Actually Put People in Better-Paying Jobs, Per Scholas is recognized as a local training program that does just that. This commentary in the Colorado Sun highlights the story of a graduate from Denver who participated in ActivateWork Powered by Per Scholas.

Low pens, “Per Scholas is effective because it bridges our skills gap. Colorado’s IT sector, 77 percent white, has 30,000 unfilled cybersecurity and coding jobs, with an average salary of more than $100,000.” These are facts that show that there is still work to do to bring economic equity to Denver.

Read the full opinion piece in the Colorado Sun here.

This month, Voyage Phoenix interviewed Jaclyn Boyes as she discussed her past experience and Per Scholas Phoenix in its inaugural year in the community.  Coming from a background in leadership and nonprofit work, Jaclyn mentioned her past experience was a great foundation for her role as Per Scholas Phoenix’s Managing Director.

“Our goal is to prepare overlooked talent – Black, Brown, and female talent in particular – who are unemployed or underemployed for successful careers that serve as an on-ramp for middle-class, well-paid jobs,” Jaclyn reflected. “The types of jobs that allow people to buy homes and begin to create wealth. The types of jobs that change the trajectory of individuals and families for generations.” 

Building on this inaugural year for Per Scholas Phoenix, Jaclyn plans to diversify the tech industry with our cost-free tech training to grow with the demand for tech jobs in the Southwest community.

To read the full interview with Jaclyn Boyes, click here!

New York City Employment and Training Coalition released their 2021 Impact Report showing how they are advancing talent and equity toward a thriving economy.  Per Scholas was featured to show how our Brooklyn Campus and Satellite classroom at Commonpoint Queens is creating innovative training and career advancement opportunities for New Yorkers.

Per Scholas is a member and funder of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCETC) and Per Scholas New York Managing Director Abe Mendez is a Chair of a Board Committee on the Board of Directors.

To read the full impact report, click here.

Two murals have recently been completed at Per Scholas’s Bronx campus, adding a colorful and vibrant look to the learning space’s walls. The murals, which feature Per Scholas alumni rendered in different artistic styles, were completed separately by two local artists: Yazmeen Collazo and Alberto Rondon, who goes by DISTER.

The murals, funded by long-time Per Scholas partner, TEKsystems, are a creative endeavor to celebrate our learners and connect with our broader Bronx community, with an emphasis on women and diversity in tech. “We’re honored to support a lasting representation of the impact Per Scholas has had on learners in the Bronx and across the U.S.,” said Alice Zients, manager of corporate social responsibility, workforce development and foundation management at TEKsystems. “Our organizations share a similar purpose of creating opportunity through career success, and we look forward to transforming the lives of even more learners in the years to come.”  See this link for a look at how the murals were created.

DISTER’s mural features New York graduates Jadah Stone and Moja Chatman, and Dallas graduate Jordan Wofford. Yazmeen’s mural includes Pittsburgh graduate Ashwini Neelgund, New York graduate Fabiana Rodriguez-Mercado, Charlotte graduate LeClair Boone, and Chicago graduate Veronica Vergara.

In addition to their artistic accomplishments as street artists and muralists, DISTER and Yazmeen were selected from over 100 submissions who competed to paint the murals at our Bronx campus.  These two local artists were chosen as finalists and received a financial award for their paintings thanks to the generous support of TEKsystems. Their selection as winners of the Per Scholas Bronx campus mural contest was based on their artistic proposals and past commitments to engaging the community in public art projects and nonprofit engagements, their alignment with the mission and values of Per Scholas and TEKsystems, their inclusion of the personality of Per Scholas learners and graduates, and their integration of the tone and mood of the Bronx in their completed pieces.

DISTER is a New York City-based artist with roots in Graffiti spray painting, writing and dance. “[My style] is predominantly influenced by Graffiti,” DISTER explained. “By definition, true Graffiti has to be illegal. Words are important in how we describe things, especially when it comes to culture. So I’d say I am influenced by Graffiti style, but [the mural] is not necessarily a Graffiti piece.” In a bow to the Graffiti style, DISTER added a unique “South Bronx” tag to his mural, making a connection to the neighborhood in the Bronx where the Per Scholas Bronx campus is located.

As for his inspiration for the mural’s content, DISTER says he sought to inject color and human touch into the Bronx campus’s walls. “I specifically wanted to humanize the building,” he reflected. “It’s really easy to think of school as just a place, so why not highlight the people of that area to represent more of the actual human experience?”

Yazmeen, hailing from the Bronx herself, attributes her inspiration largely to nature and what she felt Per Scholas brought to the South Bronx neighborhood. 

“The original inspiration [for the mural] was the nature that is often lacking in urban neighborhoods,” Yazmeen recalled. “I included some leaves and branches, which to me symbolize growth, change, and how Per Scholas plays a part in that for so many of the underrepresented individuals in the tech industry. In this case, the four women who were featured are women of color, which is an underrepresented population when it comes to technology.”

“I was thinking about what Per Scholas represents, not only in the neighborhood but in the tech industry in general. As a nonprofit, it speaks to the students in the neighborhoods it trains as something free that’s offering all these opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be presented to certain individuals in certain areas; so that was a big inspiration. I had to think about what would symbolize growth and change. The inclusion of pixels exploding out also adds motion, which speaks to me of Per Scholas providing motion and a career trajectory for its graduates.”  Also, images of birds flying and the rising sun reflect energy and the dawn of new horizons and opportunities for Per Scholas graduates.

Thanks to TEKsystems’s generosity and the hard work of our artists, the two murals were completed as of mid-January. Their bright colors and bold styles bring an exciting element to the Bronx campus, which will provide a warm welcome for our learners and returning staff when the Per Scholas flagship Bronx campus reopens to in-person learning early in 2022. 

Not surprisingly, the artists, too, were touched by their experience working with Per Scholas. “It was really great to collaborate with Per Scholas and to know that a program like this exists in the South Bronx.” DISTER said. “I have actually sent the program information to a few of my family who might be interested in attending!”  Which is exactly what we were hoping these murals would do, connecting Per Scholas more closely with the Bronx and its community.

Diverse by Design, powered by Per Scholas and ITSMF, continues to lead the way, helping  businesses create a workplace that promotes and implements diversity, equality, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) efforts.  This upcoming year, which started with our first event in January, with leadership from Per Scholas Greater Boston, Diverse by Design will keep the momentum going on for DEIB and what it means for businesses.

We kicked off the year with a Greater Boston regional event on January 25.  Mosaic, Not Melting Pot: Fostering True Belonging in the Workplace featured an esteemed panel of local DEIB leaders who explored what true belonging looks like and the relationship between belonging and workforce retention. Moderated by Ladi Olaoye, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant at Diversity@Workplace Consulting Group and President Emeritus of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Boston Professionals Chapter, panelists included Enna Jimenez, Business Transformation & Quality Leader, Senior Director, IDEMIA; Guy Pacitti, Global Leader of Inclusion and Diversity, Pegasystems; and Gene Suzuki, CIO, EverQuote. The event also featured remarks by Diverse by Design Co-Founder Ken Walker and Per Scholas Greater Boston Managing Director Robin Nadeau and an interactive networking opportunity for all guests. 

“Businesses must perform. In order to perform, we need different perspectives; we need diversity in our workforce for us to perform,” reflected Gene Suzuki. “We know the diversity in our organization is what makes us strong – that we can solve problems in ways others haven’t been able to solve.” 

Per Scholas is proud to celebrate the establishment of the Diverse by Design National Advisory Board, with Franklin Reed, Executive Director of Inclusion and Diversity at TEKsystems, presiding as Chair.  We know these national advisors will be instrumental in promoting solutions-driven conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion within tech; producing meaningful content that empowers C-suite leaders to make valuable and socially impactful business decisions; and providing access to sophisticated customized training and talent sourcing solutions to meet companies’ talent demands while transforming the diversity within their own companies. 

You can also expect to hear more from our Diverse by Design podcast as we launch Season Two later in the year. We will continue to share the stories of visionaries who are changing the diversity landscape of tech. To stay connected with Diverse by Design, subscribe to The Diverse by Design Download, featuring DEIB reflections, updates, and tips as you strive to create change within your organization.