From left: Comcast Executive Vice President Broderick Johnson, Bitwise co-founder Irma Olguin Jr., Bitwise staffers Gigi Pruett, Esperanza Perez and Arturo Ceballo. Photo by Ben Hensley.
published connected October 28, 2022 - 10:21 AM
Written by Ben Hensley
The Comcast Corporation provided Bitwise Industries with a astonishment donation of $200,000 connected Thursday during a planned sheet treatment featuring Bitwise founders, apprentices and Comcast representatives, hosted astatine the Bitwise 41 building.
The sheet discussion, hosted by Telemundo 51 News Reporter Alejandra Quezada, featured Broderick Johnson, Comcast Corporation’s enforcement vice president of integer equity and nationalist policy, arsenic good arsenic Bitwise co-CEO and co-founder Irma Olguin Jr. Bitwise staffers Gigi Pruett, Esperanza Perez, and Arturo Ceballo were besides connected the sheet discussion.
Each talker shared stories from their experiences moving successful the integer scenery with the audience, which was composed of Bitwise apprentices and employees.
The donation from Comcast is portion of the company’s Project UP, a $1 cardinal committedness to assistance adjacent the integer disagreement by providing radical with tools, resources and skills needed to win successful assorted integer fields.
“Comcast’s important concern successful Fresno volition grow workforce improvement initiatives and amusement their committedness to connecting those who person mostly been underserved with beingness changing opportunities successful tech,” Olguin Jr. said.
Johnson, who worked with the Clinton medication successful the 1990’s, explained however implicit the years his absorption shifted from focusing connected extending the scope of carnal connectivity to expanding integer literacy.
“Over those decades the integer disagreement has become, not truthful overmuch successful municipality areas especially, astir access…but it’s much astir whether oregon not radical are really subscribing oregon adopting broadband,” Johnson said. “In truthful galore parts of municipality America, there’s good implicit 90% of broadband access.”
Johnson added that closing the integer disagreement relies connected showing individuals that expanding integer literacy and entree volition assistance them successful the workforce successful the agelong run.
“Among the things that we accent astir relevance is workforce development,” helium added. “If you are online and taking vantage of the net – moving astatine programs similar the apprenticeship programs here, you recognize the relevance of processing the technology-based skills successful bid to prosecute jobs and establishing your ain business.”
Fresno Deputy Mayor Matthew Grundy said that closing the integer spread is thing that Mayor Dyer’s bureau is focusing connected successful their “One Fresno” vision.
“At the bosom of that imaginativeness is that each idiosyncratic matters, each idiosyncratic has value, and each idiosyncratic irrespective of wherever they unrecorded oregon immoderate societal identifier they mightiness have, should person an accidental to thrive successful Fresno,” helium said. “That includes having entree digitally to options that let them to determination not conscionable from cradle, but each the mode to career.”
Grundy added that portion Fresno has seen grounds unemployment rates successful 2022, galore residents inactive conflict to marque a livable wage.
He said that the transportation betwixt Bitwise and Comcast is conscionable 1 illustration of wherever the metropolis has pushed to adjacent the integer divide, hopefully giving radical the enactment to find fiscal comfortableness successful their prospective hunt for employment successful an ever-evolving integer landscape.
“We’re good alert of the historical disinvestment successful definite parts of town,” Grundy said. “I deliberation each eyes are present connected Fresno to remedy immoderate of those past issues.”
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