Year Up Atlanta — Giving Back to the Community

Five million young adults in the U.S. do not have a stable career pathway to well-paid jobs. Meanwhile, 12 million jobs that require post-secondary education will go unfilled in the next decade. Year Up is a non-profit organization that enables underrepresented young adults ages 18-24 to move from minimum wage to meaningful careers in just one year. 

In this podcast episode, host Edwin Marcial interviews three alumni from Year Up Atlanta: Carmen Buezo, Emanuel Romero, and Kevin Ngunjiri. Learn their background, their challenges, and obstacles within the traditional education system, and how Year Up Atlanta was able to provide them incredible opportunity for the future of their careers!

Come along for the ride as Edwin and the gang discuss a few topics including:

The importance of Year Up as it prepares students to enter corporate environments and empowers them to effect change in their own lives How companies like Aaron’s, Autotrader, Cox Automotive, and more are investing in Year Up through in corporate partnerships and are offering internships to alumni

You’ll also get to hear specifics about each of the three alumni: 

Carmen: left Honduras after political unrest and is starting college soon. What Carmen is learning through Year Up:Impact of working in a corporate environmentImproving consumers’ ability to obtain products through data analysis and automationBuilding reports to send to partner companies Emanuel: learning how to code and develop software as a DACA recipient from MexicoWhat Emanuel is learning through Year Up:Learning how to project confidence when speaking in front of other people Can now speak in front of larger groups in business settingsKevin: an immigrant from Kenya is driven by a desire to understand web developmentWhat Kevin is learning through Year Up:Learning how to build and maintain websites and has a knack for accomplishing the features that customers requestUnderstanding how to work with teams when conflict arises