Highlight a story filed by abc7s eric thomas about a new venture that could fasttrack students toward college. They called him mr. October because of his postseason heroics at the plate. But on this friday in september, Reggie Jackson was talking about the importance of science and Technology Education to students of color. And as a minority, you do not get a fair opportunity. You do not get a fair shake. But sometimes you do get a little star power, money from Silicon Valley, and input from a local Community College to help give these kids a nudge along the way. The focus on technology because theres such a significant lack of any kind of minority population in technology. Its true that africanamericans and latinos make up less than 5 of employees at the major Tech Companies. This initiative hopes to help change that. Its a joint venture between Silicon ValleySoftware Giant sap, the Oakland Unified School district, and Berkeley City College. The goal . Get more kids of color involved in the tech industry. Thats not new, but this is. Students in the academy will be allowed to take courses that offer credits both at skyline and at Berkeley City College at no cost. And after they graduate, they have two years to complete their Associates Degree for free. Were hoping that they can get, lets say, at least a couple semesters worth of College Credits before they leave so theyll have a real edge. They also become our Employee Base later. So, its a Virtuous Cycle for all. I want to create something. I want people to know my name, what i did. I just want to make sure america leads us, continues to lead the world in computertechnology science. Everybody involved expects to get back more than they give, especially the tech industry, which believes that diversity creates greater profits and prosperity. In oakland, eric thomas, abc7 news. And joining us in studio today are dr. Hilaria bauer, sitting right next to me, superintendent of Alum Rock UnionElementary School district, located in East San Jose, hector mujica, socialresponsibility Program Manager over at google, and Deldelp Medina, director of the Residency Program at code2040. Thank you all for being here. Thank you. Hi. How are you, jessica . Good to see all of you. Deldelp, i want to begin with you on code2040. Talk to us a little bit about what your program does, especially bringing latinos into technology. Yeah, we work with black and latinx folks to bring them into the innovation economy. So, we have three programs. Our Flagship Program is a program that helps students that are getting their c. S. Degrees, so their computerscience degree, to help them find internships here in the bay area. Our Second Program is the tap program, which works also with these students to help them get skill sets and understandings and understand how to stay within the c. S. Programs. And then i am in charge of the entrepreneurship program. So, im really lucky to be able to work with founders of color that have Tech Companies across seven cities and eight next year. So, im really excited. And were gonna talk to you in just a little bit about the barriers to entry for latinos into technology, but, dr. Bauer, i want to ask you about your school district. 87 of the kids are of latino heritage, right . Also, many of them are below the poverty level, so their challenges are a little bit different than most districts, especially in terms of accessing the new economy. For our families, its quite a different world. And so, the work that we do in our district will hopefully lead our students to become just like you guys around the table successful latinos that have access to the new economy. And on that note, hector, i want to talk to you about your work at google, what you do there. And you represent a latino thats very successful in technology. Yeah, thank you. So, im a socialresponsibility Program Manager at google. Help build out a lot and encourage a lot of our Employee Engagement and giving and in socialresponsibility programs. And im also one of the advisers to our hispanic employeeresource group, hola. So, within that realm, i work very closely with all of our hispanic groups within google. And speaking of advice to latinos and anyone trying to get into technology, deldelp, can you talk a little bit about barriers to entry, what youre seeing, especially with code2040, what latinos are facing, trying to get into tech . Well, i think that we have to delineate a couple things. First of all, we overconsume in terms of buying and being on all sorts of apps, programs, that sort of thing. So, this idea that somehow latinos are not technologyminded i think is a moot point. Theres a flip side to that. Unfortunately, a lot of us are mobile native. So, in other words, our only kind of connection my mom calls it. [ speaking spanish ]. The little device is mobile. So, its very hard to learn how to code. Its very hard to be able to do your schoolwork if your only device is either an ipad or a phone. And so, that is a barrier to entry on the one hand. On the other hand, because folks are mobile native, because they understand how to use these things, it allows us to have a fluidity when it comes to technology in a very different way. And so, it is trying to fill that gap that were constantly working with. So, a lot of the folks that i get to work with, which are tech entrepreneurs of color, they are creating things that very few other people are looking at. Theyre looking at the marketplace in a very different way. And also knowing fully well that one Tech Employee earns as much as a black and latinx family combined. So, that when you are looking at that disparity in terms of poverty, the reality is, is that one of the ways in which we can narrow the income gap is making sure that we are a part and were at the table in terms of making products for ourselves for the rest of the u. S. Thats exactly what were trying to do in alum rock, in making technology a part of the curriculum. So, its not like an Afterschool Program or a saturday academy. But for our families, to your point of having access to kind of limited machines, if you will. You know, students need to be able to know and interact with them in a different way, in a more consistent way so that for example, in alum rock, we have something called code to the future, where technology is taught during the day, just like reading and math. Its not an Afterschool Program. Its not an afterthought. And the reason we needed to invest in that is just because of what you said. They need to make it part of their everyday life. And, dr. Bauer, were gonna talk a little bit more about how technology is being used in schools currently, but we do need to take a quick break. Well be right back. Welcome back to our special roundtable edition of beyond the headlines. Im jessica castro, guesthosting for cheryl jennings. Weve been talking with local leaders in our Hispanic Community about education, technology, innovation. Silicon valley may be home to many highTech Companies, but often, students in East San Jose are left behind. A program paid for by one district is giving the kids new tools to break through barriers, and abc7 News Reporter matt keller filed this story from meadows Elementary School. Does it seem like everyone you know has an ipad . It may seem true, but in East San Jose, accessibility to technology heck, even getting on the internet is a luxury many kids dont have. But that changed today for hundreds of elementaryschool students in East San Joses franklinmckinley school district. A big announcement at meadows elementary this morning, letting third through sixth graders know they now have 180 ipads available in their classrooms. The technology will help give personalized learning to students in a school that has 40 english learners. Take a sixthgrade class, for example. We have some thirdgrade readers. We have some twelfthgrade readers. And for a teacher of 32 kids to be able to differentiate both levels with traditional just books is very challenging. Meadows is a stem school. They teach coding and even robotics. But the ipads will also be used for traditional subjects, as well. I like to use it for history. It will also give students access to a secret us adults have been keeping from them for years. Do you think adults are pretty smart . Yeah. You know, its just because we have access to google. Were not as smart as you may think. Now you have access to google. You gonna be as smart as an adult now . Yeah. Thats pretty good. Kennedy and shirakawa elementary will also be getting 160 ipads today, with the goal of having all 16 schools in the district having ipads in the classroom by 2018. In san jose, matt keller, abc7 news. And those kids so excited to get an ipad. Dr. Bauer, real quick can you tell us the situation in your school district, what kind of technology you have . Sure. One of the things that i know is that children learn no matter what. But what has changed is the way we teach. And so, its about providing the access to different tools and different ways of technology. Ipads are fantastic, and i think they use it, and they know how to do it better than the adults. But also having them learn how to use the equipment, as i said before, in a different modality. For example, for Critical Thinking and problem solving, how to access information those are kinds of things that we need to directteach our students, because usually the tools are used as entertainment, right . And so we have to change that paradigm for them. And teaching, of course, so much of that in schools. And, hector, can you talk to us about code next and the work that google is doing to bring all that technology into schools . Definitely. So, code next is actually an outsideoftheclassroom program that weve recently announced. Its a program happening in oakland and harlem, and the goal of the program is to Bring Technology and to bring training to where the students are at. So, we really want to be proximate to the students and meet them where theyre at in the communities. And the Program Pilot right now was with eighth graders. The goal of the program is to follow the same class of students throughout their highschool careers, give them a good ramp as they get ready to progress into college and hopefully empowering them and enabling them to pursue a career in computer science. And what does that mean, just being technology literate, or kind of the work that deldelp does, where youre learning to code, youre really creating that technology . Where does that marry together . Yeah, the program is very comprehensive. So, theyre gonna be getting from us basic learnings. But where theyre at right now in the eighth grade and middle school, theyre gonna be getting introductions to coding. And as they progress in their highschool careers, with this program, theyre gonna be Digging Deeper into learning how to code and to learning different aspects and different coding languages and really diving deeper into what it means to be in computer science. And, deldelp, how does that work with what youre trying to accomplish and actually getting latinos and people of color in the tech sector . Yeah, no, just the differentiation. We actually dont teach people how to code, but what were really dedicating ourselves to is to create onramps for people to have access to jobs within the innovation economy. And so, its important for us that folks like all of you are doing that work because for us its really about finding what are those barriers to entry. And the reality is, the reason were called code 2040 is by 2040 this will be a minoritymajority country, right . So, this idea that we dont have a seat at the table is actually pretty economically dangerous from our point of view. Already in california, we are the average californians. My kid is the average schoolchild. Those children we saw are the average schoolchildren. And so, if were not training the next group of folks, and if were not actually cultivating the folks that are already here, who are latino and black, that is problematic for us because the next 20, 30 years, were not just competing against global superpowers, were competing against smaller countries that are already onramping people in a very, very quick way and that there is no disposable people in this country anymore. This idea that somehow a Certain Group of people shouldnt have a seat at the table i think can get really problematic, as were doing this demographic shift. And, hector, are you seeing that, that we are competing globally on that global stage at google . And then also talk to us about your experience because you have a unique one. We talk a lot about latinos not having technology in their home, but i know you grew up with a family who were in the tech sector, continue to be. I had a very similar experience. My dad is a biomedical engineer. So, i was exposed to that. Yeah, so, my dad is a computer scientist. He actually got his education in venezuela before moving to the United States. He now works for oracle. And i grew up in a house that was very much connected to the internet. I had devices. I had computers, i remember, dsl and dialup and everything in between. And for me getting that level of exposure and also that role model into someone that was in technology was really, really beneficial and i think what put me in a trajectory to go into where im at today. And i think thats something that a lot of latinos lack is a role model. If you cant see it, you cant be it. And what we see a lot in the Hispanic Community is that a lot of latinos dont have a role model in technology that they can look up to and hopefully pursue a career in tech. So, for me i was very fortunate to have that in my life, and hopefully through programs and initiatives like code next and other initiatives like our peer nonprofits and educators are doing, we can also inspire the next generation of latino technologists. Are you seeing that in your schools, dr. Bauer . Absolutely. And shifting a little bit of a the conversation to deldelps point, there are no people to spare, right . And so, i totally honor when you have somebody in your life that is able to do that. The majority of our latino students, especially in the east side, dont have that. So, we need to reach out to the families and have them be part of the school so that they understand kind of how to connect to this, right . We have to create a bridge so that they are models where theres none right now, right . And so, not to think, okay, well, this is over, or youre always gonna be kind of in the Service Sector or things like that. We need to open doors and windows and everything we can open and create bridges for our families so that they can see themselves as the tech entrepreneurs or developers. They need to be part of the new economy. I want to talk about that, how we incentivize latinos to be a part of that conversation, not just here sitting at this table, but in our community. And so, were gonna talk about that right after the break. We will be back in just a minute. At t has a network with thousands of bestinclass security experts. Which means. More of the eye balls you want watching the network. Less of the ones you dont. More experts preventing Security Issues less security threats impacting our customers. More of a highly secure network with more Security Products available for further protection less per month than comcast for business internet. Switch to at t internet for business. More less thats the power of. Nogy and equipment that will give you a leg up in the civilian world. Learn critical leadership skills and to be part of a team. Serve your community, and your country, parttime while earning money for an education. Visit nationalguard. Com to learn about the paid training and Career Opportunities available to you in the Army National guard. Welcome back to our special hispanic roundtable episode of beyond the headlines. Im jessica castro. Weve been talking with dr. Hilaria bauer, hector mujica, and Deldelp Medina for our special show. And i want to get back to this idea of incentivizing our Latino Community members to give back. And, deldelp, ill start with you. Yeah, no, i feel very lucky to be able to work with folks across the United States that are giving back to their communities and understand what is at stake. What is at stake is an economic imperative that we currently have to be able to make sure that were filling in that gap. And innovation is the way to do it. If youve become a millionaire or a billionaire in the 21st century, its because of technology. The only other way you could have done that is actual petroleum. And so, this is a way in which your intelligence, your hard work, your dedication allows you to do that. But on the flip side, we do need to create inclusive environments. The reality is, is that too often when i go to a tech conference and ive been going to them for 15, 20 years i would be the only in a room. Id be the only woman. Id be the only person of color. Id be the only bilingual person. And so now, when i go to Tech Companies, and now when i go to tech conventions, its a very different place and space, but there is a lot of work still to be done. Yeah, you mentioned just how much someone can gain from the tech sector economically. So, hector, can you talk to us, because i know you do a lot of work in the community and give back, not only with your time but monetarily, as well. So, talk to us about that space. Yeah, so, ive been very fortunate to be part of Latino CommunityFoundation Giving circles group, and thats a group that the Latino Community foundation founded about a year ago. And the hope there is to take hispanics from being just recipients of philanthropic dollars but also make them into givers of philanthropic dollars. Hispanics currently only benefit from less than 2 of philanthropic dollars, even though we make up over 20 of the population of the United States. And lcf is really looking to change that paradigm and doing so by enabling us regular hispanics to pull together our resources, pull together our money, learn more about the issues that are affecting our local communities, and empowering us to give back to those local communities through these giving circles. And, dr. Bauer, you have examples like hector and deldelp latinos in the tech sector or dealing with tech in some capacity. Is that enough, though, or do we need mentors . How do you see it from your perspective in the schools . We need everybody involved. And i was gonna use the term come back to the community, right . Because a lot of times, we just kind of go out and kind of mingle and blend with middle class, which is fantastic. Im not saying that. But a lot of times we forget where we came from, right . And theres this hesitation. So, a lot of our communities have been ravaged by all kinds of things because of poverty. Thats it. And so, we need to refrain the conversation and to say, it is okay to go back and mentor. It is okay to go back and give, right . And it is learning for us as a group to say, we need to be part of the solution, right . We need to be active, and we need to visit my schools, right . I have 24 schools where the majority of the students are latino, and they need those role models. They need to see you, jessica, coming in and saying, hi, guys. You can become me, because youre absolutely right. Until you see it, its not gonna happen. And i can see my students right now, most of our role models and i am very grateful a lot of our teachers have been products of our schools, and they can relate to the students, and they can be part of their community. But they need diversity. Professional diversity is what we need so that they can see themselves in that. And real quick, i want you to give one piece of advice for the parents watching this. So, just one sentence from each of you on whats the numberone thing they can do if theyre watching this at home right now. In my case, they need to become involved in their school directly. They need to come. They need to see whats going on. They need to ask questions. Be part of it. Okay. Hector . And also by being part of it, i would encourage them to change the policies that affect us all, right . And elections are coming up, and theyre very, very important. So, i would encourage them to check out a resource that Latino Community foundation has launched called latinosvote. Com, which is a resource to get latinos registered to vote this next election. Okay. And deldelp . I would say not put barriers in front of your children. Just because you dont know how to do something doesnt mean that your kid cant figure out how to do it. I think too often we want to keep our kids safe, and out of that safety we end up creating barriers there. Theres already enough barriers to entries. They also need to be able to be curious and to be engaged and to find out a way of going about it. So, i think as a parent in particular, i find that if you tell a kid no, that inevitably creates a situation where they think, oh, this isnt possible. Where you should say, well, lets figure it out. Lets find out a way to make this happen. But, really, skys the limit, right, no matter what language you speak and no matter where you come from. Thats right. Id like to thank our fantastic studio guests, of course. Dr. Hilaria bauer, hector mujica, Deldelp Medina. They have their programs. Theyre trailblazing in our community, and we are excited to follow their work. So, please check out all of their different organizations. Cheryl, back to you. Thank you, jessica. For more information about todays program, just go to our website, abc7news. Com community. Were also on facebook abccommunityaffairs, as well as cheryljenningsabc7. And follow me on twitter cherylabc7. Im cheryl jennings. Have a great week. Well see you next time