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Preparing Tech Leaders City of Refuge’s T2 Academy transforms lives through IT programs
T2 Academy’s coding class at their graduation in December 2021. (Photos Courtesy City of Refuge)
By Clare S. Richie
O
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.” Housed 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 Hub 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
12 MAY 2022 |
A student leader helps a coding student. A T2 Tech Meet-Up last November.
partners because we are running this program through 2025,” said Jeannie Ross, Manager of the Workforce Innovation Hub 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 parttime 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.” He 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. He tells his students that he was fifthto-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 At l a n t a I n t o w n Pa p e r. c o m
