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Preparing Tech Leaders
City of Refuge’s T2 Academy transforms lives through IT programs
By ClareS. Richie
n May 25, students from the
first cybersecurity cohort at
the City of Refuge’s Tech
Transformation Academy (T2
Academy) will graduate and
enter Atlanta’s information technology
workforce.
“From our amazing job recruiter to our
teachers, life coaches, and case managers,
this program has been the best thing that
has ever happened to me,” said student
Joel Kigwila, who entered the program
with no IT experience. “After graduating,
I will start my Delta career as an IT
Associate Security Analyst.”
FFoused in a donated warehouse on the
Westside, City of Refuge has served more
than 25,000 people over 25 years with
holistic programming focused on health
and wellness, housing, vocational training,
and youth development. Its campus
includes a Workforce Innovation FFub
that prepares unemployed/underemployed
participants for meaningful work in
manufacturing, automotive technology,
banking, culinary, and IT.
City of Refuge launched its T2
Academy, a coding and cyber security
job training and placement program, in
February 2021 thanks to a $5.4 million
grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.
“We want to attract more people to
apply and are looking for more business
partners because we are running this
program through 2025,” said Jeannie Ross,
Manager of the Workforce Innovation
FFub and T2 Academy lead.
In partnership with Atlanta-based
DigitalCrafts and the Carolina Cyber
Center of Montreat College, T2 Academy
seeks to recruit and train 280 unemployed/
underemployed individuals in metro
Atlanta with a focus on people of color,
women, individuals with disabilities,
veterans, military spouses, transitioning
service members, ex-offenders, and others
with employment barriers.
“The grant is phenomenal. It covers
tuition, equipment, fees for certificates,
lunch, and soft skills training like resumes,
cover letters, business emails,” said
Recruiter John McQueen. “We are focused
on giving the student every opportunity to
be successful — they just have to put in the
hard work.”
The program offers a four-month
coding bootcamp and a nine-month cyber
security professional bootcamp that meets
daily during the week. Last December, the
first coding students graduated and shortly
thereafter began junior software engineer
positions, apprenticeships or internships
with salaries ranging from $60,000 to
$80,000 annually.
Applications are now being accepted
for upcoming classes: a 6.5-month part-
time coding class starting June 17, a cyber
cohort in August, and a full-time coding
cohort in February 2023.
“We’re looking for students 100%
committed to finding a job in IT,”
McQueen said. “There are 450,000 open
jobs right now [nationwide] without
enough people to fill those jobs.”
The biggest challenge is mindset,
according to Troy Wilson, coding
instructor and former MailChimp software
engineer.
“It was a bit intimidating because I
was used to working jobs that required a
lot of physical labor and never thought I
was qualified to be a coder,” shared coding
graduate Morrese Green. “I spent seven
years working jobs that paid $10 or $15
an hour. I knew I could do more.” Lie
now works as an associate cloud system
developer.
“My rules are positive self-talk; take
things one step at a time; be comfortable
with slow progress; don’t subscribe to the
culture of comparison,” Wilson said.
Lie tells his students that he was fifth-
to-last in his high school class and didn’t
finish college — to model what’s possible.
Coding is just a new way to translate their
AtlantalntomnPaper.com
12 MAY 2022 | [E]