LAKELAND, Fla. -A Polk County after-school program gives students unique opportunities to enter the technology industry.
Kathleen High School student success coach Mr. Jeffrey Williams is passionate about helping students reach their full potential and this is why he started the Risk Club 14 years ago.
“You can’t be what you can’t see. So, we do college tours, business tours just different fun-based field trips to give them exposure: let them know it’s a bigger world out there, ”Jeffrey Williams said.
Senior Essence Gaines, dreams of becoming a cosmologist, but he also loves coding.
“I want to learn to make apps because I want to have my own shop. So I wanted to make my own booking app. I feel like that’s going to be fun, ”Gaines said.
Students like Essence will learn how to build apps, code, and more, thanks to a partnership between the risk club and ServiceNow, a major California-based tech firm. The goal is to expose Black and brown students to the tech industry, where minority groups remain under-represented. Johnnie Swanson is interested in a career in computer science.
“I’ve been very tech involved since I was a kid. I like old phones, tablets and I want to mess with them and see how they work, ”Swanson said.
It is also a step towards closing the digital divide, ensuring that students have equal access to the opportunities provided by the internet connection.
“Many times in our communities we don’t even have Wi-Fi to connect to the internet. So, by giving these kids these opportunities allows them to be great and then learn about the space that they never tried, ”Williams said.
Williams said 20 students will each receive a free MacBook, and by the end of the six-week program, five students will get a highly paid internship at ServiceNow.
“By building their self -esteem and confidence and gaining knowledge early on, they are virtually unstoppable, limitless,” Williams said.
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