While you have earned your spot in training, everything has just begun. Summer training is only a small portion of the entire story, and it is up to you to fill the rest of it.  My name is Patience Kollie. I am part of the Class of 2020, and during this time I didn’t know what to do, what to expect, or what I would be after this training.

Summer training has gone virtual this year, which has prompted even more innovation. This summer, we will be hosting our first-ever Virtual Tech Conference, featuring Genesys Works alumni, tech trainers, corporate supervisors, and other experts in the technology industry.

Executive director Karen Marben will be stepping down from her position after five years of leadership for Genesys Works Twin Cities. In June 2015, Karen Marben joined the team as the organization’s second executive director. Under her leadership, nearly 1,300 high school students earned a year-long business technology internship, and programming expanded significantly to incorporate opportunities for post-secondary students.

We’re entering an exciting phase in the Talent Development Pipeline (TDP) program. This year, Genesys Works young professionals are beginning to exit the program for the very reason they enter it: to launch their career! Our first individual to move into his first official career role is – drumroll, please – Kyle Lee!  Find out more about Kyle and his first career moves, and stay tuned for more individuals to be added to the official “Career Launched” list!

Throughout the 2019-2020 internship year, our Genesys Works young professionals and their supervisors have demonstrated more creativity and perseverance than we ever could have imagined! No matter what challenges this year provided, they stepped up to the task at hand and continued to create meaningful internship experiences. This June, as we wrap up our school year internships and transition into training our new class of students, we wanted to remind you of all our featured interns and supervisors!

Systemic racism and racial trauma is not new. So, as we move forward, it is important we do so with increasing awareness and urgency in order to create a more equitable future and disrupt systems of oppression for our Twin Cities youth. Read on for a bit more education on how Juneteenth came to be.

In the last thirty days, the nation has witnessed George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Italia Kelly, David McAtee, and many others lose their lives due to a system that was created to further the oppression of Black and Brown folks. However, among all of this injustice and pain, communities have come together from every walk of life, to promote change and to hold members of this unjust system accountable for their actions. Although this doesn’t bring back the lives of fallen community members, this revolution inspires hope and demands change.

The senseless murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers emphasizes the inextricable link between the work of Genesys Works and the systemic racism that is faced by the Black community.

York Solutions, in partnership with Genesys Works Twin Cities, the Think IT Association, and Wallin Education Partners, is excited to announce the 2020 Think IT Scholarship winners: Veronica Venegas, Sue Xiong, Faiza Mah, and Pa Gar Vang. In our final feature, we are excited to spotlight Pa Gar Vang, a sophomore at the University of Minnesota who hopes to become a web designer. As a Class of 2018 Genesys Works young professional, Pa Gar interned at Abbott and attended high school at Johnson Aerospace & Engineering High School. She also earned a college internship at Target and recently wrote a guest blog about forging her career path in web design.

If I could tell anything to the girl I was back in August, I would tell her to be happy with the goals she has accomplished and the progress she has made. I would also tell her that nothing has to be 100% perfect. If she could make everything perfect, she simply wouldn’t be human.