Yakima Times

Bank of America issued the following announcement on July 20. 

The nonprofit workforce development program Year Up Charlotte will be holding a virtual graduation ceremony to celebrate its inaugural graduating class at 6:00 pm on July 23rd. At the start of the ceremony, Cathy Bessant, Bank of America’s Chief Operations and Technology Officer, will join Year Up’s Founder and CEO Gerald Chertavian for a fireside chat to highlight Bank of America’s and Year Up’s long-term partnership and to inspire, encourage and motivate Year Up Charlotte graduates in their path forward and as role models for others.

“Year Up is highly effective in attracting smart, motivated young people with diverse backgrounds who will be our leaders of the future,” said Cathy. “Our partnership provides these students an opportunity to learn with us through Year Up internships, and ultimately reach their full potential while pursuing a career in technology.”

“Through our partnership with Bank of America — and through Cathy’s leadership in creating diverse pathways to opportunity and employment for young adults — Year Up has continued to advance a more inclusive economy in Charlotte and across the U.S.,” said Chertavian. “As we work to improve economic mobility and close the racial income gap, employers like Bank of America are helping us to ensure that young people of color receive the skills, support and experience necessary to secure meaningful careers in top industries.”

Year Up Charlotte provides talented and motivated young people with a semester of technical and professional skills training to prepare them for entry-level technology and customer-facing roles, followed by a semester-long, credit-bearing internship at a top company like Bank of America. In 2018, the federally-sponsored Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) evaluation of Year Up showed a 53% increase in initial earnings for young adults randomly assigned to Year Up compared with similar young adults in a control group. Nationwide, 90% of Year Up graduates are employed or attending college within four months of completing Year Up, with average starting salaries of $42,000/year.

Trinity Simpson, one of the students graduating from Year Up Charlotte’s first class, will deliver the keynote speech. Simpson feared that if he stayed in his small town in North Carolina, he would “be working a minimum wage job with no opportunity and become another statistic.” He has just completed his Year Up internship at Bank of America in cyber security and has accepted an offer as an Operations Control Analyst at the bank.

Bank of America has partnered with Year Up since 2006 in cities across the United States, providing Year Up internship opportunities for more than 1,400 students in areas such as Global Technology & Operations, Consumer & Small Business, Global Wealth & Investment Management and Global Strategy & Enterprise Platforms.

Learn more about Year Up Charlotte by visiting us on Facebook and Twitter. If you’d like to attend the Charlotte virtual graduation ceremony, please RSVP here.

Original source can be found here.