Empowering Youth from Under-served Communities to Launch a Career in Tech
LA-Tech.org understands the need to build bridges between the tech community and communities throughout Los Angeles who have been historically disconnected to opportunities in the tech sector. In order to address issues of equity and create economic opportunity for all, we need the participation of the tech community in giving, activism and volunteerism.
Fika Tech Career Academy Graduation 2022
Here is an example of what happens when a venture capital firm decides to invest in the future of tech leadership from Los Angeles’ low income neighborhoods:
In the Fall of 2020, amidst the pandemic and after an extremely challenging 9 months, LA-Tech.org and a boutique seed firm got together to help. Job security and general employment in 2020 were in dire straits and it’s no surprise that low income communities of color were hit the hardest.
Eva Ho, CCF Board Member and General Partner at Fika Ventures (an LA boutique seed fund) and Sean Arian, Executive Director of LA-Tech.org put their heads together to come up with a plan. Eva and Sean met almost 10 years ago and bonded over a mutual interest in innovation in public service and workforce development. After having collaborated on several projects together, they decided to put their creative thinking minds and service-oriented hearts into action.
Eva’s inspiration for the Academy was tied in part to her experience growing up in a low-income household with non-English speaking immigrant parents who could not offer career guidance. The Academy had to be focused on opening doors for highly skilled students who lacked opportunity at the beginning of their tech careers.
During his time as director of economic development for LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Sean noticed that as economic inequality widened in LA, pathways into high wage jobs were unavailable to LA’s low–income communities. He found that one of the key roadblocks was not lack of skills, but lack of exposure to those high growth, high pay industries. He realized that they needed something that helped close the experience gap, and with Eva’s partnership and a few brainstorming sessions, that seed of an idea grew into the Fika Tech Career Academy.
The initial idea was a digital event partnered with another local nonprofit to connect students from underserved communities with speakers who worked in tech. This was to help encourage young people to engage with the possibility of a career in tech.
True to the tech nature, the first iteration failed. The nonprofit partner was unstructured, the speakers from tech unsatisfied and students didn't transition into internships. That led Sean and Eva to try something new– a more structured academy, informed by the tech industry with a curriculum dedicated to placing graduates into paid internships at tech companies upon completion.
After much deliberation, in December 2020 they came up with a never-done-before program that tapped into Fika’s unique skills as venture investors to help students become career-ready.
And so, the Fika Tech Career Academy was born.
Gathering Fika staff and external faculty members who were skilled in three areas of focus - Product Management, Marketing & Sales - they created a plan to take 20 low income students of color through a 120-hour career development course. Essentially, the students came up with an idea for a product they want to bring to market and each week go through exercises on how to define, market and sell their product.
The goal of this was for these students to develop career aspirations in tech through industry-based learning and projects, mentorship, and the development of their own tech network.
A core component of the Academy is inspiration. Fika’s choice of faculty had to inspire this next generation of tech leaders to achieve their dreams. As a result, Eva selected top executives from companies such as Roblox, Robinhood, Sonos, DeepMind, Vendition, Snap Inc., Facebook, Patient Pop and Google X.
To make sure the Academy was financially accessible for students, LA-Tech.org worked with WDACS, LA County’s workforce development agency to secure stipends for students to participate in the program. This was to ensure that 100% of the students were from low-income backgrounds. Another important component of the program was external volunteers coming in from LA’s tech community. Companies such as Cornerstone OnDemand, Blackline and Fernish helped the students during the Academy in a mentorship type role.
Overall, the Academy was hugely rewarding and 70% of students are currently employed in organizations such as Cornerstone OnDemand, NASA JPL, Miller Ink and Snap Inc.
One of the candidates, Luis Bravo is a 23 year old student at Santa Monica College. Shortly after the Fika Tech Academy, Luis was placed as a Sales Lead Researcher at a fintech company, Mesh Payments. About his internship, Luis said:
“This internship has taught me a lot about sales and marketing and how a startup operates. Overall, it has been great working with the sales team at Mesh. I now have much deeper knowledge of email marketing, prospecting, and overall just about the whole sales cycle.”
As a result, Fika Ventures is launching 2 more of these academies in 2022 to support a total of 100-150 students from low income backgrounds.
There is so much untapped talent in Los Angeles and the Fika Tech Career Academy is a first-of-its-kind pilot to reach LA communities that have been disconnected from opportunities in tech and support talented young people in carving out their careers in the industry. It serves as a real invitation for tech companies and VC firms alike to step up and make sure the industry is as fully representative and as diverse as Los Angeles is.
Find out more about the Fika Tech Career Academy here.