Building Future Workforce
“I like to organize to stay focused and on task,” says Alianna Lozoya. Not your typical 17 year old, Alianna was one of 30 teens chosen out of 200 to be a part of Sacramento Mayor Daryl Steinberg’s Thousand Strong Initiative.
Alianna was placed at the California Department of Technology (CDT) headquarters where she’s learning everything from office skills to communications. The senior from the Sacramento Academic and Vocational Academy (SAVA) Charter High School says knows what she wants in life… and that’s to be a pediatrician. She was inspired by taking care of a young relative who has diabetes. “I want to help kids stay healthy and strong and to be positive, no matter what their struggles,” Alianna said. Already earning college credits, Alianna is even taking an Emergency Medical Response course.
Thousand Strong is a workforce development initiative that brings together school districts, community based organizations, state and local funding partners, and businesses to provide year round paid internships for local teens like Alianna. Its mission is to boost the City’s economic prosperity to create a pool of skilled, experienced young talent. It’s proven that early exposure to work experiences helps youth gain the technical and soft skills to be career ready.
The partnership is a part of CDT’s ongoing efforts to foster career pathways for high school and college students to enter the state IT workforce through Science Technolgy, Engineering and Math (STEM) activities that include datacenter tours, classroom visits, code-a-thon sponsorship and participation in cyber competitions. “I’m learning how to manage my time between school and work,” says Alianna,“That helps me how to be even more organized.” Alianna will remain with CDT through the summer of 2020.