Digital career training program aimed at Latinos opens Modesto branch. Here’s what it does
Digital NEST has come to Modesto with the goal of helping Latinos take flight toward computer careers.
The nonprofit offers free training to members ages 14 to 24 on the fourth floor of an old 11th Street building. Although the main focus is Latinos, people from other backgrounds can take part.
Digital NEST started in Watsonville in 2014 and spread to nearby Salinas and Gilroy. Stockton will get a branch next spring. The acronym stands for Nurturing Entrepreneurial Skills with Technology.
People throughout Stanislaus County can apply. There are no income guidelines, but Digital NEST seeks to reach families with limited access to tech. Computers are provided.
The group accepts private donations and public money. The Modesto site has $575,000 annually over the next three years from the city government, local foundations and other sources.
The center had a soft launch with a summer class in computer coding for teens. Community leaders gathered for a Sept. 7 grand opening. The Modesto Bee visited six days later, when new members began the weekly Career Pathways series.
“It’s great for me and my friends to have a place to develop our skills,” said Aram Rodriguez, a senior at Modesto High School. He hopes to attend college to study computer science or mechanical or electrical engineering.
32 members and growing
Digital NEST had 32 members as of mid-September and is looking for more, said Monica Escamilla, director of the Modesto site. The staff also includes member specialist Gabriela Diaz and member advocate Ethan Beaudette.
Digital NEST is on the top floor of the Pacific Center, a distinctive building at 1012 11th St. Members enter through a brick facade from the early 1900s. They ride an elevator to a suite illuminated by skylights and glass bricks with a bit of a Silicon Valley vibe.
Digital NEST is open from 2 to 6 p.m. weekdays. Members can drop by to mingle or do school homework, or join in these structured programs:
- The weekly Career Exploration series, for members between ninth and 11th grades. They hear from industry experts about the options that await.
- Career Pathways, where older members spend a year on topics such as website design, video, graphic arts and information technology management.
- bizzNEST, which provides paid internships over a year.
Soft skills help in high tech
Digital NEST already has served about 3,200 members at its Central Coast locations. It reports an average starting salary of $45,760 a year for those who go into tech full time.
The program also includes other workplace topics such as communication, organization and handling emotions.
“Having those soft skills comes in handy because everything in tech is group work,” member Jesus Romero said. “There’s no point in being antisocial.”
Romero, 20, graduated from Central Valley High School in Ceres. He has learned about software engineering without any college classes. He helped teach the summer coding class for teens.
Digital NEST also works with Bay Valley Tech, a Modesto school that teaches how to write code. That skill is in great demand in Silicon Valley but also is needed in food processing, health care and other core Stanislaus industries.
“Because they are able to stay local, that also contributes to the growth of the local economy,” Escamilla said.
‘A really cool community resource’
Francesca Immediato, 23, of Oakdale studied sociology and psychology at Columbia College but plans to become a software engineer. She completed an internship at Bay Valley Tech and now attends Digital NEST.
“I just thought it would be a really cool community resource I could use to get career-ready,” she said.
The Modesto City Council voted in July to provide $150,000 over three years to Digital NEST. The money was left over from federal COVID-19 relief.
An anonymous donor gave $200,000 to the effort. It also got support from the Stanislaus Community Foundation, the Porges Family Foundation, the Olson Family Fund and others.
This story was originally published September 18, 2023 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Digital career training program aimed at Latinos opens Modesto branch. Here’s what it does."
