51社区

Aaliyah Sibanda, a rising senior at聽聽in Oakland, loves using her people-skills. This summer, she developed new capabilities in an online course on聽s at 51社区.

罢丑别听听辞蹿听, a national nonprofit that provides pathways to college and career success for underserved students, teamed up with Salesforce and 51社区 to offer a unique training program. GGU provided students with training in聽, while Genesys Works provided training in soft skills needed to navigate a corporate office environment鈥攁ll offered online and a large portion sponsored by Salesforce. Students who successfully complete the GGU course gain college credits and a certificate that they can embed in their LinkedIn profiles.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really cool to see how you can use聽聽and Excel everywhere,鈥� said Aaliyah. 鈥淔or my final project, I鈥檓 researching聽. I think the pandemic has provided examples of scarcity marketing with toilet paper and hand sanitizer. It鈥檚 interesting how data analytics comes into that.鈥�

Business and Data Analytics at GGU

The summer course,聽, was taught to high school students participating in a program offered by Genesys Works that empowers high school seniors through classroom training and a year-long paid internship.

Genesys Works Bay Area (GWBA) Executive Director聽聽said the program鈥檚 mission is to lay the groundwork for students in underserved communities to be successful after high school. During the two-month training, Genesys Works gives students meaningful work experiences, training in hard and soft skills, and access to impactful relationships.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 followed by a year-long paid internship with companies like聽聽and Kaiser,鈥欌�� Rezaie said. 鈥淭he internship is supplemented by ongoing support and resources that Genesys Works provides. Students then use their program experience as a springboard for college and career success.鈥�

It鈥檚 a model that鈥檚 producing聽. 96 percent of the students who complete the Genesys Works program go to college, 40 percent pursue degrees in STEM, and they graduate at a rate that鈥檚 3.5 times higher than what you see in this demographic of students, the majority of whom are first-generation college goers.

Supporting Underserved Communities

鈥淚t鈥檚 a great opportunity to give underserved high school students basic skills they can use right away,鈥� said聽Marc Singer, dean of Undergraduate Studies at GGU. 鈥淯nderstanding data analytics is essential to working in any field. While many Bay Area professionals earn high incomes, other folks are falling behind. We need to insert ourselves into the ecosystem of organizations addressing these challenges in our community.鈥�

What鈥檚 different about the Genesys Works training offered this summer is that it鈥檚 all聽, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic heavily impacts the communities Genesys Works serves as well as its partners. In a survey of the demographic Genesys Works serves, 55 percent of those who responded said that at least one adult in their household had been laid off. More than 40 percent live in a household where they are the only member earning a steady paycheck, and 29 percent feared losing their housing.

Online Learning

For Aaliyah, the challenge of learning聽聽remotely was one of motivation.

鈥淭he virtual environment did make learning challenging. But since data analytics would be on the computer anyway, it wasn鈥檛 so much of a change,鈥� said Aaliyah. 鈥淭he hardest part is finding motivation at home. Trying to stay focused has been difficult, but I鈥檓 learning and getting better.鈥�

Darien Sngoeun, another student in the GGU course, agreed that learning data analytics remotely was challenging but he鈥檚 developed valuable skills.

鈥淚 came into the class with no prior knowledge of anything,鈥� said Darien. 鈥淣ow I know the basics of data manipulation, exploratory data, what charts to visualize the data, and questions that should be asked to analyze the chart. By taking this class I鈥檝e gained an interest in computer science and business.鈥�