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We're extremely proud of our 20-year history of being a launchpad for small and emerging companies all over the world to get noticed and succeed. Marcy Lab School Marcy Lab School is a non-profit private institution located within Brooklyn, New York, that aims at providing students with an outstanding post-secondary experiences to help young adults to financially lucrative and meaningful careers in the tech sector.

That's why we donated an amount of $100,000 to Marcy Lab School as a part of our 2020 commitment to assist organizations working to eliminate racial discrimination.

We talked to The Marcy Lab School's Executive Director, Reuben Ogbonna II, about how The Marcy Lab School is creating opportunities for students to tap into their talents and pursue careers in tech and other fields, whether or not they have a formal degree.

: Marcy Lab is a brand new organization that is exciting and innovative. What made you decide to start this nonprofit?

Reuben Ogbonna II: After spending 14 years serving students of color--along with my co-founder Maya Bhattacharjee-Marcantonio--in the charter and public school systems, we repeatedly watched as our former students with limitless potential slipped through the cracks of higher education. One of the things you aren't told about college in this country is that each year, thousands of promising, hardworking students get accepted to the university of their dreams but not have the money to attend or even make it to the degree of. It was a harrowing experience to witness the abysmal failure rate of "college promises" which left our college students as well as their families with life-altering debt and many other seeming insurmountable hurdles.

Marcy Lab was founded and runs Marcy Lab out of the conviction that children from our diverse society, as well as all youngsters, need the chance to gain more fair, equitable accessibility to the possibilities and opportunities once only afforded to graduates of a 4-year institution. Marcy Lab School Marcy Lab School offers a new post-secondary program that is rooted in our founding mission of creating opportunities for lifelong financial flexibility and options for the young adults who are interested in making a career within the field of technology.

SQSP: The program can be described as a feasible alternative to the traditional four-year college degree for fellow students. Why is it vital for you to understand that The Marcy Lab offers this pathway to work?

RO:The problems I observed my pupils encounter firsthand are among the top challenges faced by students of color. It was clear that the postsecondary system we have in our nation was not able to meet the promise of college that many young people want such as community, support of their academics, integration with the prospect of an employment, but a successful career. It's the intentional mixture of these factors that form the foundation of Marcy Lab and are some of the defining factors that give young adults the courage to pursue the alternative path to follow that's not traditional.

In order to meet our brand new promise to our Fellows, we ensure that the Fellows are ready for work following the 12 month course and equipped with the necessary skills for integrating themselves in fast-paced teams that add to the company on the very initial day. The Fellows acquire technical expertise through an industry-aligned, educated curriculum that is flexible and responsive to the constantly shifting demands of the tech sector. Alongside developing a solid technical skill set, our Fellows are engaged with our Leadership & Development curriculum, that focuses on the formation of gender equality in racial and ethnic identities in career development, as well as financial literacy. The curriculum incorporates the work of renowned authors such as James Baldwin, Michelle Alexander, Safiya Umoja Noble, as well as the late Dr. Beverly Tatum.

We're incredibly proud to say that Marcy Lab School graduates are seeking and landing positions with higher salaries, which were restricted to students from highly top four-year universities. This has two implications The second is that we are seeing our classmates and their families have been have been pushed into jobs that give secure financial stability, however it shows the way in that companies are drastically changing their hiring policies to accept, encourage, and keep the talents of non-traditional employees.

SQSP: Can you tell us more information about the effect that you've witnessed at the Marcy Lab School have on the students and their families during and following the course?

ROEven after five years working in this field, it is not lost on me just how radical it is to watch our incredible young professionals take up jobs which pay a median annual salary of between 19 and 20 at one of the biggest global companies without any debt. The teams they work for are organizations like The New York Times, JPMorgan, Cockroach Labs, Spotify and many more and are boosting their income by nearly $75,000 over the course of one year, and also allowing them to contribute back to their communities through buying homes, assisting their families' companies, and helping their families.

But even before our Fellows embark on their journeys into the business, we watch how they grow, change and develop as individuals, working further than ever before in order to achieve their goals and building the confidence that they bring value to every area they step into. Every day they become more attracted and driven to bring change outside the boundaries of Marcy and, eventually, their workplace environments. Through their work with instructors as well as with their colleagues, they stay focused on the fact that their abilities, knowledge as well as capabilities will give them their ability to change the systems that have been an obstacle to equality throughout history through their experiences and training in the creation of tools for social good and for the social transformation.

SQSP: What's the role that technology play in the overall achievement that is the Marcy Lab program and its colleagues, both as expert subject matter experts, as well as for the operation of the program?

RO:Our technological curriculum's effectiveness depends on our close relationship with our partners from employers in order to create consistent feedback loops around the Fellows' technical and professional skills. The areas that need improvement are sent right back to our instruction team to ensure that our program can evolve and change in order to satisfy the demands of employers and in-the-field performance.

The alignment of academics and performance of students is resultant in the establishment of new partnerships for hiring with businesses which acknowledge the possibility that close relationships could result in equal or stronger hiring outcomes. A few highlights are:

In partnership with established businesses so that they can reduce the need for degrees to software engineers. This is a case of The New York Times and . They also have hired our Fellows and other unconventional talent.

We are currently developing a brand new Capstone program of study in conjunction in conjunction with J.P. Morgan Chase Asset and Wealth Management, which is a backend engineering course in our capstone course to address their requirements and prepare our Fellows for the industry's ever-growing growth in analytics, based on data.

SQSP How do you see your goals for the future of Marcy Lab School?

ROWhat inspires me to believe in Marcy Lab's future Marcy Lab as well as the future of the areas that we work in are the changes happening in the business world with companies moving away from the requirement of degrees and toward skills-based hiring, that has opened the door of organizations such as Marcy Lab to even exist.

I am aware of major employers across the country including IBM and Barclays as partners and have a significant amount of fresh professionals, mid-level, and senior leaders that have come from The Marcy Lab School, similar to Stanford's pipeline for firms that are located in the San Francisco Bay Area. As they gain experience and work for these top firms I can see our students beginning to form their own firms and then paying the dividends by hiring teams that have similar background similar to the teams they worked for.

In the end, I consider Marcy Lab as a part of a larger set of fair paths that was specifically designed to help propel thousands of high-achieving students of color into careers which will end cycles of poverty within a single generation.

SQSP: What can people who are interested in Marcy Lab's purpose be able to do? involved?

ROIf Our mission, vision and the mission you pursue resonate with you, we urge you to join us and become a part of our growing community. We're hoping that we'll continue encouraging others to join in this effort! There are three methods for people who are new to get involved:

Go to Our Brooklyn campus located in Industry City and meet first-hand students and teenagers who work tirelessly to achieve their ambitions and the impressive group of experts who push it all forward.

You can volunteer your time and impart your knowledge to fellow Fellows as they complete the strict requirements of our program for one year, prepare for job searches and beyond. The volunteers in our community serve as curriculum advisors, mentors and guest lecturers and recruiters and are a critical component of our curriculum. They ensure that our program is which is aligned to industry standards as well as making sure that we are satisfied with every participants in our group.

In the end, donating to us means it is possible to carry on the program without tuition for the fellow participants.

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