San Francisco non-profit Dev/Mission prepares low-income students for tech jobs

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Dev/Mission was founded two years ago. Their goal is to equip low-income students between the ages of 16 and 24-years-old by teaching them to code, build websites and fix computers.

"We have enrolled over 100 young people with an 80 percent graduation rate. As of last week, 45 of them are working on an apprenticeship, fellowship, part-time job and full-time job in the tech industry," said founder Leo Sosa.

Maria Jose Garcia, Tevin Jones, Muhammad Ethan Angeles and Erick Barreraa are part of this year's class.

Tevin Jones works at Burger King in the morning and spends his afternoons coding at Dev/Mission.

"I learned about hardware and software and how RAM is short term memory," said Jones.

In the future, Muhammad Ethan Angeles wants to build apps for pharmacists, but for now he created a website.

"I have a design team and we created a clothing app called 'malware' and our main focus is to diversify the field of code," he said.

Maria Jose Garcia is building an app to help low-income families find resources in their area.

"My parents, they didn't graduate from college and since they came they only work at restaurants and construction. Now, when they see me doing something to better myself they are really proud of me," said Garcia.

Once they graduate from the program, some students like Mellany Andrea Quiroz further their education in STEM.

"I was going to CCSF and last semester I got accepted to UC Santa Cruz for computer science, but I really wanted to come back and give back to my community," said Quiroz, who is also an instructor during the summer at Dev/Mission.

We asked Dev/Mission's founder what's the feedback he's getting in the Bay Area?

Sosa said, "The feedback is don't worry about the hard skills. Focus on the soft skills. How to be on time, prepare for a job interview, how to deal with feedback."

At the end of the 12-week program, these students get a $500 stipend and a computer but what many are after are jobs.

"I just want to get an entry-level position. I promise I'll do my best. I know hardware, I know coding, I know programming and I'm ready for the job," said Garcia.

Dev/Mission receives its funding from multiple tech companies as well as the City of San Francisco.

To sign up for the next free 12 weeks of training, you can visit: www.devmission.org/progam

Classes take place Monday to Thursday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 360 Valencia Street in San Francisco.

The next training will begin on September 16.