Leo Sosa

Leonardo Sosa, Executive Director
(415) 572.3947
leo@devmission.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2019

On Friday, May 3rd, at the Google Launchpad in SF our Dev/Mission Community came together to celebrate the accomplishments of 6 young adults from SF as the completed a 12-week training pre-apprenticeship occupational skills program; the program has prepared them for careers in the tech sector.

In partnership with Mission Housing Development Corporation, we provided technology instruction to 6 transitional-age youth, ages 16-24 since February 2019, in the following competencies:

A+ Training: 1st crucial step to advance IT Certifications.
IoT: Internet of Things where youth learn how to build hardware/coding projects with electronics, sensors, led lights and much more.
Intro to Programming: Learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as youth build their own website, web app or mobile app. Critical Career Skills: Youth learn about Job Readiness, business communication, professionalism, and team building projects.

The program is unique in that instruction takes place exclusively onsite in affordable housing communities in San Francisco, and youth participants are required to provide much-needed free tech support and repair services to low-income families in their communities when they graduate from their program.

The graduation was an opportunity to honored students for their hard work in the presence of their families and friends. Speakers included partners from the tech industry and members of the graduation class, and internship placements were also be announced.

To learn more about <dev/Mission> which aims to train untapped young adults ages 16-24 for careers in tech, contact Leo Sosa @ leo@devmission.org

We would like to thank the below Program Sponsors: Mission Housing Development Corporation, The Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Google, The San Francisco Foundation and Uber.

Name, Hometown:
Bryan Seybold, New Brighton, MN / San Francisco, CA

How long have you been a Dev/Mission volunteer?
About a year

What were you doing before joining Dev/Mission as a volunteer?
I was a biology student at UCSF and a software engineer at Google

Describe your typical volunteer routine at Dev/Mission and why it’s important in your life?
I was a biology student at UCSF and a software engineer at Google
My work with <dev/Mission> varies throughout the year. I’m the head instructor of the Internet of Things curriculum at DevMission. I teach about half of the IoT classes for each cohort. Between cohorts, I work to recruit volunteers, procure supplies, and write the Internet of Things curriculum at DevMission.

Volunteering is important for me because it’s an opportunity to give back to and improve my community. I’ve benefited from a great deal of support over the years and I hope to provide that to the students.

As every teacher learns, there is also so much to learn when teaching. The students’ ingenuity always impresses me. Hearing their own analogies that made the material click for them teaches me to communicate better. Developing a curriculum and organizing volunteers is letting me flex a new set of muscles. <dev/Mission> provides a place where I can grow continuously too.

Share any personal anecdotes involved with Dev/Mission?
That feeling when some new-fangled device just doesn’t seem to work with the WiFi? We get that with a class of 20 students simultaneously. In our pursuit of ever better signals, we’ve climbed on and rearranged furniture, mapped all corners of the room and then the building, and burned through a lot of personal data plans for hotspots. It’s all worth it to see what the students can build and watching them devour new content even if we need to fall back to analog teaching.

How has Dev/Mission staff supported you?
Dev/Mission’s staff has been the key to making this program possible. The encouragement, guidance, and structure they provide for students is outstanding and so critical for the students’ successes. I may be able to teach a class to an empty room without the staff’s support, but I would not be able to make a difference for these students without the staff’s help.

In terms of low-level details, the staff helps me connect better with the students, orders and organizes supplies, and motivates the students to achieve more.

What three words would you use to describe Dev/Mission if you were trying to convince a friend/peer to get involved as a volunteer?
1-Motivated
2-Comprehensive
3-Supportive

Has Dev/Mission positively impacted you? If so, how? Yes, it has impacted, how?
The easy wins are in my ability to create a curriculum, organize a group, connect with students, and teach. More profound is the satisfaction of teaching a good class and seeing the concepts click for the students.

What do you think makes Dev/Mission different from other organizations you have volunteered for before?
One focus of Dev/Mission that always stands out to me is that training encompasses so much more than just learning to code. Learning to code has been pivotal in my life, but so much more of life has been dominated by soft skills. <dev/Mission> incorporates soft skills training into their curriculum and helps the students understand why these skills open up doors.

Leonardo Sosa, Executive Director
(415) 572.3947
leo@devmission.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2019

Our Spring 2019 IT Pre-Apprenticeship Occupational Skills Training Program launched this week in partnership with Mission Housing Development Corporation inside Valencia Gardens in San Francisco, CA. This program is funded by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development to create an apprenticeship pipeline for the tech industry.


The 12 weeks intensive technology program started this Monday, February 11th and currently has 10 young adults ages 16-24 enrolled in the program. Most of the young adults come from low income communities in San Francisco, Bayview, Visitacion Valley and the Mission district and about 80% of the students are Hispanic descendants. The average income level for their families is between $30,000 and $40,000.


This FREE program offers IT essential training in hardware/tech support/CompTIA, Intro to Programming (HTML, CSS and Javascript); Internet of Things (IoT) and Critical Career Skills to underserved young adults. Our schedule is four days a week for 3 hours a day and on Fridays we dedicate that day for corporate site visits. Most of the program participants did not know what to expect in the program; but they were mostly interested in technology skills.


The Dev/Mission program often invites guest speakers from different technology corporations to speak to the students about their experiences and share some advice with them. Many students have found the speaker’s experiences interesting and motivating; another great way to teach them how to network with peers and colleagues.


The next 12 weeks are going to be exciting as these untapped young adults are beginning to identify which career pathway they would like to follow: post secondary education or employment pathways. dev/Mission will be there to support their career pathway for months/years to come!