The youth were involved in Student WEB CORPS — a signature program of TECH CORPS, a national nonprofit committed to ensuring all K-12 students have access to high-quality technology programs. Students from Lorain Schools, Elyria Schools, Clearview Schools and Ohio Virtual Academy in Avon took part in the learn-and-earn experience, the release said.
This is the second summer TECH CORPS has offered the program in Lorain County.
The Community Foundation of Lorain County, Nord Family Foundation, Nordson Corporation Foundation and Ohio Means Jobs of Lorain County each had a hand in making this year's programming possible, according to the release.
"Job readiness, digital literacy and the ability to work with others all immediately come to mind as vital foundational skills for the future," said Jeremy Cordes, youth program manager for Ohio Means Jobs-Lorain County, in the release. "These are the skills that students gained while attending Student WEB CORPS this summer.
"They developed job readiness skills as the program provided teamwork opportunities and improved their digital literacy skills."
"The Community Foundation is committed to providing opportunities for Lorain County youth," said Britt Lovett, marketing communications officer for Community Foundation of Lorain County, in the release. "The Student WEB CORPS program provides students with foundational IT and computer science skills that are transferable once they complete high school.
"Working in collaboration with Lorain County Urban League, Elyria High School, Oberlin High School and Ohio Means Jobs allows more youth across Lorain County to participate in the program."
Through the Student WEB CORPS six-week program, students worked in teams to build websites for their mock clients.
This year, there were three student teams who collaborated with volunteer mock clients.
Technology professionals James Kerekes from Ernst and Young, Tony Clark from Hyland and Adeline Dascoli from Barentz worked with students to practice professional approaches to client meetings which ended with a full group presentation of their finalized product.
"I was inspired by how creative the students got and I could tell they were proud of the work they had done," said Dascoli, a systems analyst at Barentz, in the release. "The end result was great."
The knowledge obtained in a TECH CORPS program goes far beyond technical skills.
"My favorite part about Student WEB CORPS was the way the instructors implemented creativity into our lessons, but also the teamwork," said Nahiomy Guzmán, a recent graduate of Lorain City Schools, in the release. "To get to know all of these new people and work with them well, it really makes me feel good."
©2022 The Morning Journal, Lorain, Ohio. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
