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is proud of our 20-year experience as a launchpad for startups and small companies everywhere to stand out and succeed. Marcy Lab School Marcy Lab School is a nonprofit organization located in Brooklyn, New York, which aims to offer students with an outstanding post-secondary experiences to help teens into lucrative and meaningful jobs in the tech industry.

We gave $100,000 to the Marcy Lab School as a part of our 2020 commitment to help organizations that work towards reducing racial inequities.

We had a conversation with the Marcy Lab School's executive director, Reuben Ogbonna II, about how the organization is creating possibilities for Fellows to realize their full potential and pursue careers in the field of technology with no four-year college degree.

: Marcy Lab is a relatively new company, so why have you decided to establish this non-profit?

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 stories that don't get told about college in America is that, every year, hundreds of hard-working, highly promising students are accepted into the school that they've always dreamed of but won't have the money to attend or persist to graduation. We were astonished by the pervasive failing "college promise" which has left our students and their families in financial ruin and with other impossible obstacles.

So in 2019, we formed and manage Marcy Lab out of the belief that our young people who are of color, and in fact all young adults, should have a better, more equitable way to access the rights and opportunities that used to be only accessible to those who graduated from a 4-year institution. Marcy Lab School Marcy Lab School offers a reimagined post-secondary option founded on our original goal of ensuring that there is always flexibility and choices for the youngsters who want to pursue the life-changing professions of tech.

SQSP: This program is described as an alternative to the four-year college degree for fellow students. What is the reason it's important to you that The Marcy Lab offers this path to employment?

RO:The challenges I witnessed my students encounter firsthand are some of the most pervasive hurdles for young learners who are of color. The reality was that our post-secondary system was failing to deliver on the promises of college most young people seek: community, support of their academic goals, as well as aligning with not only an occupation but also a future. It's the conscious combination of these elements which form the basis of Marcy Lab and are some important factors that provide young people with the confidence to choose the path that isn't traditional.

In order to fulfill our fresh promise, we guarantee that our Fellows will be ready to work after our 12 month program. They are prepared with the skills to embed themselves in fast-paced teams and contribute value from day one. Our Fellows gain technical skills through an industry-aligned, well-informed curriculum that is adaptive and responsive to the ever-changing demands of the tech industry. In addition to gaining a robust technical skill set, our Fellows are engaged in our Leadership & Development curriculum, which focuses on the development of racial identities gender equity, career preparedness, as well as financial literacy, with books by renowned authors like James Baldwin, Michelle Alexander, Safiya Umoja Noble, and Dr. Beverly Tatum.

We're extremely proud to announce that Marcy Lab School graduates are in the race to secure high-paying jobs typically reserved for graduates from competitive four-year colleges. It's a double win It's not just that our students as well as their families thrust to positions that offer secure financial stability, but it signals the ways that companies are changing their hiring policies to accept as well as retain the non-traditional workforce.

SQSP: Could you tell us more about the impact you've witnessed the Marcy Lab School have on its fellows during and after the program?

RO:Even after five years of doing this work and observing the results, it's not lost on me just how revolutionary it is to see our amazing young people step into roles with an average annual earnings between 19 and 20 in some of the most competitive companies in the world, with zero loans. They are contributing to teams of companies like The New York Times, JPMorgan, Cockroach Labs, Spotify and many more and increasing their earnings on average by nearly $75,000 in just one year. They are also able to invest back into their local communities by buying homes, aiding their family companies, and helping their families.

However, even before our Fellows break into the industry and enter the workforce, we observe them learn, transform, and grow as individuals, working further than ever before in order to realize their ambitions and building the confidence that they bring value to every room they walk into. Every day they become more curious and more eager to make change beyond the confines of Marcy and, ultimately, their work environments. Through their work with instructors and with each other that they remain grounded in the reality that their skills, talents, and capabilities will empower individuals to break down the systems that have been a source of inequality for centuries and ultimately, they will use their experiences and their education to design instruments for social justice and for changes in society.

SQSP: What part does technology play in the overall achievement of the Marcy Lab program and its co-participants, both as subjects as well as in the running of the program?

ROOur technology-based curriculum's performance hinges on our symbiotic relationship with our employers partners in order in order to establish a consistent feedback loop about our Fellows' technical and work-ready. Relevant areas for improvement go right back to our instruction teams to ensure that our content can evolve and change in response to hiring needs and performance on the job.

The alignment of curriculum and student performance is resulting in the creation of more hiring agreements with companies who recognize that these tight connections can lead to equal or stronger hiring outcomes. The highlights include:

Working directly with established companies in order to reduce the requirements of degrees to hire software engineers. These include the New York Times and . They have also hired our Fellows as well as other talent that isn't traditional.

Building a new Capstone project curriculum in conjunction with J.P. Morgan Chase Asset and Wealth Management, which has a specialization in backend engineering of data curriculum for our capstone period to satisfy their needs and help prepare our Fellows for the industry's ever-growing expansion in analytics based on data.

SQSP: What are your hopes for the future of Marcy Lab School?

RO:What keeps me hopeful about Marcy Lab's future and the future of the places that we work in is the changes occurring within the business community as companies move away from the requirement of degrees and toward skills-based hiring, which has unlocked the potential for companies like Marcy Lab to even exist.

I see major employers across the nation such as IBM and Barclays to partners like  that, which have a substantial number of early career, mid-level, and senior leaders that have come from The Marcy Lab School, similar the Stanford University pipeline that connects businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area. And after gaining knowledge and working experience in these top businesses, I am seeing our students eventually launching their own businesses and starting their own business as well as transferring the wealth by hiring teams with similar experiences as the ones they did.

In the end, I consider Marcy Lab as a part of an expanded ecosystem of equitable pathways built expressly to propel thousands of high-achieving students from communities of color to careers that will break cycles of poverty in one generation.

SQSP: How can individuals who are interested in the Marcy Lab School's mission be involved?

RO:If our mission, vision and the work you do resonate with you and you are interested in joining us, we invite you to join us as a member of our community that is growing. It's our hope that we can help others be inspired as we join this cause! We frequently share three options for new folks to get involved:

Visit Our Brooklyn campus in Industry City and meet first-hand the talented young people who work tirelessly to achieve their dreams and the incredible team that moves everything ahead.

Donate your time and share your knowledge with our Fellows who are navigating the challenges of our one-year course to prepare them for job searches, and beyond. The community of volunteers serves as mentors, curriculum advisors as well as guest lecturers and recruiting partners. They are an essential part of the program. It helps keep our curriculum industry-oriented and helping to ensure the satisfaction of all of our Fellows.

Additionally, donating to our work allows us to ensure that this program is tuition-free for our fellows.