Afterschool programs teach students tech as LAUSD restructures



When Jonathan Marcelino’s parents told him he could either own a computer or a cell phone, the decision was not difficult for the 17-year-old to make.

As the eldest of four children born to Mexican immigrants living on a tight budget in Nickerson Gardens, a Watts public housing project, Marcelino knew that although he would have liked to have a phone to regularly text friends, a computer would be more productive.

“Regardless of where I go, I want to study computer science,” he said. “I want to do cool stuff, make money and then do a nonprofit. That’s why you don’t see me running with a phone.”

The lack of exposure to technology and its practical applications in daily life is a reality many students living in and around South Los Angeles face, Marcelino said.

[Read more…]

Coding boot camps emerging as supplement to traditional tech instruction



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Gregorio Rojas stands with his most recent cohort of students who participated in his coding boot camp. | Photo courtesy of Gregorio Rojas

Coding boot camps, long on the fringe of traditional education spheres, are pushing their way into national conversation of how to attract more Americans into the STEM fields.

These boot camps, a product of the technology boom, are technical training programs designed to expose novice students to the most important aspects of the coding and web development field while guiding them to become innovators. Oftentimes boot camps lead students into jobs in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics industries.

Last month, the Department of Education rolled out its pilot program, EQUIP. The program, which is now open for application, allows colleges and universities to partner with non-traditional education models like boot camps, and gives students access to federal financial aid.

EQUIP is part of a growing initiative to help underwrite the cost of attending satellite programs that train students in career fields the country needs–particularly in the STEM fields in which the Obama Administration has encouraged more growth.

Yet, the concept of the recent policies supporting coding boot camps is not new in South Los Angeles. EQUIP would be supporting an educational model that has already taken root in the area, some educators say.

A few years ago, Gregorio Rojas and his wife founded Sabio, a startup focused on providing software development training to women and minorities. At Sabio, students spend 6 to 12 weekends in intensive programs learning to code, develop software and hone technical skills. At the end they hold the promise of standing on their own in the competitive STEM industries.

“One reason I do this is because I pretty much learned this way,” Rojas said of the boot camps. “It’s hands on, on the job, intense and very focused. I got into the industry right before the dot-com bubble burst. These skills facilitated my own entry.”

His coding boot camp is based in Culver City, but Rojas said many of his students have ties to the South L.A. community.

At boot camps, students spend hours learning code language — not from a book, but by implementation. The experience is intense, but the success of the methodology is proved each time Rojas’ students walk away with a firm grasp of the material and are later gainfully employed. Many times, students participate in hackathons, holding their own against competition.

Gregorio Rojas (left) celebrated the launch of two of his students' apps to the Apple Store.

Gregorio Rojas (left) celebrated the launch of two of his students’ apps to the Apple Store. | Photo courtesy of Gregorio Rojas

Recently Rojas celebrated the launch of two students’ app now featured in the Apple Store. Both creators of the app had been in two wildly different fields before the coding boot camp; one was a Spanish professor and the other was working in the financing world. At Sabio, the average student is a 30-year-old, according to its founders.

In the basement of South LA’s Southside Church of Christ, Chris Baccus also runs a coding boot camp — this one aimed at middle schoolers. Baccus, executive director of Concerned Citizens Community Involvement, helps run the camp on Saturdays. In one year, seventy students have gone through the non-profit’s Limitless STEM Academy.

The wide range of participant ages for the coding boot camps in South Los Angeles show the demand for alternative education models. Generally the camps are also less expensive options when compared to the norm.

At Sabio, a three-month program costs $13,450 though it is set to increase 7 percent to $14,450 in 2016.

Comparably, the estimated yearly cost for attending the University of Southern California, a four-year semi-private institution is $67,212, while the all-expense-covered yearly tuition for a University of California school is $33,600 for in-state residents. At a California State University such as Cal State LA, to receive a computer science degree, students would pay around $32,240. Most students would quadruple these costs during the four-year pursuit of a bachelor’s degree.

For an associate’s degree in computer information systems at Los Angeles Trade-Tech College, California residents pay around $2,070.

Baccus’ Limitless STEM Academy held on Manchester Avenue and Harvard Boulevard is free of charge for the middle school students.

Rojas sees EQUIP as a federal commitment to embracing more innovative styles of teaching and a sign that this type of instruction is working.

“People are going to start waking up and realize that what they do is not traditional but it’s theory,” Rojas said. “Those institutions want to tap into these resources and bring them into the fold. These are conversations that have been happening for at least a year now.”

Boot camp organizers said they not only see such programs as great supplements to educational systems for their students, but in some cases their curricula can help drive STEM instruction in the traditional classrooms.

Read More: Teens Exploring Technology celebrates grand opening of community space

Baccus pointed to the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has been struggling to integrate emerging technology into its curriculum.

“I’ve worked at LAUSD for 17 years so I understand the challenge that some of our schools have in implementing innovative programs because everything is all-around taught to a test,” Baccus said.

Not discouraged, Baccus said he’s looking to spread his program into Inglewood and Compton to reach more students.

“In the future we want our students to be able to be problem solvers because that skill never grows old,” he said. “As technology advances, it just becomes an easier way to solve a problem and if you can, then you’ll always have a job. You don’t wait, you create your own opportunity.”

Baccus has talked to academics at traditional colleges who have requested his help trying to integrate structures like that of Limitless STEM Academy into their classroom. One philosophy the boot camps have integrated is the dedication to serving underrepresented communities, such as women, African American and Latino populations. They’re helping to facilitate the next generation of minority students entering the tech field.  

“[At Sabio] you have a Latino immigrant and Latina CEO coming out here and running things,” Rojas, who is a Colombian immigrant, said. “I don’t think you’re going to find something else like this.”

Rojas’ wife and Sabio co-founder, Liliana Monge, is Mexican and grew up in South Gate. Baccus also said he believed his students seeing other people of color working in tech encourage them to continue breaking into the ever-changing industry.

“The more qualifiers you have, the easier it is for minorities to sit at the table with people who may be unfortunately less qualified, but may have a network that allows them to get opportunities that we traditionally have been left out of, especially in STEM and technology and computers,” Baccus said. “Any more ammunition they get to put in their toolbox is absolutely great.”

Diversity, however, is not just essential in South Los Angeles. Diversifying the industry overall breeds better innovations in the field.

“Coding software development is supposed to be one of the leading innovative industries in the world – in the planet really, but by design for a bunch of different factors is the least innovative group out there,” Rojas said. “We don’t have enough women and people of color in the room to challenge the other folk in the room.”

Baccus hopes that the progress in terms diversity and technology will continue to take root, and eventually become a requirement for younger students.

“I would love to see [EQUIP] interfused with the curriculum for students even before high school to give them the skills they would need,” Baccus said. “Help them do that self-discovery before they get into those pathway programs.”

 

Solar technology charges into South LA homes



South LA resident gets one of the first solar panel installations in her neighborhood.

Rose Pinkney surrounded by family and GRID Alternatives representatives. (May 2015)

On what was a mostly cloudy day in the Willowbrook neighborhood of South Los Angeles, the sun emerged in time for resident Rose Pinkney to celebrate the installation of free solar panels on her rooftop.

In an event held in front of her home on Friday, Pinkney, a self-professed techie whose neighbors often knock on her door for advice, beamed as she shared her excitement about the new installation to her home near McKinkey Avenue and 120th Street.

“This is a way to promote clean energy that is well needed in neighborhoods filled with pollution,” said Pinkney, addressing a small crowd of curious neighbors and a handful of reporters.

[Read more…]

Teens Exploring Technology celebrates grand opening of community space



A student at TXT. | Stephanie Monte

A student stays focused on his laptop at TXT. | Stephanie Monte

Teens Exploring Technology, or simply TXT, celebrated the opening of its multi-purpose, innovative space called “The Cube” last weekend. The Cube, at 1481 West Adams Boulevard, provides the community with a variety of technological services and educational programs.

TXT, formerly known as Urban Txt, believes that technology should be accessible to people of all socio-economic statuses. The organization hopes to use The Cube to develop a culture of innovation, collaboration and resilience to make a social impact in disenfranchised communities. The space is designed to cater to the wishes and needs of South L.A. residents to offer support with tasks such as research for school assignments or creating a resume for job applications. The Cube will also host a variety of free workshops involving technology. Community members can learn coding for websites, Adobe Photoshop and Avid Pro Tools. A library of books on entrepreneurship, technology and coding is also available. TXT’s founder and executive director, Oscar N. Menjivar, received a $25,000 grant from the Annenberg Foundation to launch The Cube.

See also: Teen tech leaders compete in Demo Day 2014

[Read more…]

Teen tech leaders compete in Demo Day 2014



URBAN TxT Demo Day 2014

URBAN TxT Demo Day 2014 | Willa Seidenberg

“South L.A. is a tech desert, but URBAN TxT is changing that,” proclaimed Oscar Menjivar, founder of Urban TxT (Teens Exploring Technology) at the organization’s Demo Day 2014, held Saturday at the University of Southern California’s Salvatori Hall.

URBAN TxT, which announced it is rebranding itself as TxT, is a non-profit that works with inner-city boys to develop tomorrow’s technology leaders and to bring change to their communities. [Read more…]

Students at Foshay explore digital privacy



LAUSD’s Teacher of the Year, Leslie Aaronson, spearheaded a workshop at Foshay High School in South LA on Tuesday morning. She had her students create ad campaigns about topics they were interested in. They all chose digital footprints and online security.

The students were divided into five groups and each group had their own booth at the workshop that all students of the school could attend. As the students came in their peers taught them about online security and safe Internet usage. Some students did not know that privacy settings existed in social media. Others incorrectly thought that deleting a post from the Internet meant that it would disappear permanently, when that is not the case.

The students in Aaronson’s class helped workshop attendees by having students log into their Facebook or social media accounts. The groups would then tell the students which posts should be deleted or avoided. Another group created a video tutorial that walked students through changing their privacy settings for Facebook.

Aaronson’s class chose issues with social media and online security because they are seniors heading off to college or applying for work. They know that future employers or admissions officers will look at their social media sites.

Hear the voices of Foshay students:

LA leaders push for free Wi-Fi citywide



Photographer brings everything he needs to work online at the local coffee shop.

The Los Angeles City Council is considering a plan to provide free wireless Internet for all of Los Angeles, a move that would make the city the nation’s largest with free, universal access.

Some South L.A. residents say they aren’t sure if they agree with expanding the city’s hotspot. Still, the need is apparent.

Destiny Walker, 21, rides her bike about twelve blocks to the nearest Starbucks on Slauson and Western Avenues to get online.

“If I could just be wherever I want with free Wi-Fi, I’m going to be, like, everywhere,” she said. [Read more…]