Last month, Jerah and five other First Place participants toured Adobe’s headquarters in San Francisco with the knowledge that in a few short months they might be working there, thanks to a new partnership between First Place and Treehouse, an online tech training provider.

“I’ve been in college and changed my major a lot of times because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do career-wise,” says Jerah. “But I’d never really done anything with computers.”

Now, Jerah and her cohort are working toward a certification as a User Experience Designer, while another group of First Place youth are receiving Full Stack JavaScript training in preparation for careers at Chegg. Both courses are through Talent Path, a Treehouse program designed to provide direct career-linked training for those who are underrepresented in the tech world.

“I think it’s going to stick,” says Jerah about her future in UX Design. “I like the creativity aspect. It’s fun, and it all makes sense to me. The coolest part so far has been getting to build a prototype for an app and see it work. I made a weather app, and still have it on my phone.”

For former foster youth, who are significantly less likely to graduate college and obtain high-wage employment, the opportunity for rapid training that leads directly to work in a high-paying, high-growth field is life changing. We are thrilled to be working with Treehouse to give our young people access to careers they may have never considered or previously thought were out of reach.

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