Photograph by Nina Smith
In an effort to provide Berkeley Technology Academy (BTA) students with hands-on experience in areas they have expressed interest in and formal relationships in local industries, BTA principal Ardarius McDonald recently established a partnership with Neguse Consulting, a marketing and business consultant.
“This partnership, in a short period of time, has already resulted in the formation of an Apprentice Program that is unique between Berkeley Technology Academy and the Bay Area Association of Black Owned Businesses (BAOBOB),” said McDonald.
The program will partner fifteen students from BTA with black business owners or mentors in the Bay Area. For eight weeks, students will spend four hours a week with their mentor in exchange for school credit.
“I pursued the partnership as part of my larger vision and plan to transform the Berkeley Technology campus into a school that is associated with cultivating students that are not only life-long learners but also equipped with real-life skill sets and most importantly real-life experience so that upon graduation there is already a transition process established that could lead to employment opportunities straight out of high school,” said McDonald.
Rahwa Neguse, the founder and principle consultant of Neguse Consulting, stated that a goal of the program is to introduce students to business owners who have lived and understand the experience of a black person in America, in addition to the journey of high school. “My hope is that this can be a relationship that they’d be able to maintain beyond the program, and [they can] understand what it means to be an entrepreneur, beyond the glitz and the glamour," Rahwa said. "What it means to manage your schedule, the day in, the day out, the challenges, the decision making, all these responsibilities.”
Selected participants of the program attended an orientation and started work on February 28.
“I’d like them to realize the strength, resiliency, and ancient wisdom that composes their very own DNA,” said McDonald.