"LaShana grew up in East St. Louis. She had a passion for computers. But because of circumstances, constraints, she wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She wasn’t able to get a college degree, and because she didn’t have a college degree, she couldn’t even get an interview for a tech job, despite her coding skills. So she was working as a bus driver, and she was working in entry-level jobs.
"But LaShana apparently is a stubborn person—which is good. Sometimes you need to be stubborn. So she refused to give up on her dream, and she used her free time to teach herself new computer skills. And she started going to a coding “meetup” that was run by LaunchCode, which is a non-for-profit that finds talented people across St. Louis and gives them the training and credibility for the tech jobs employers are desperately needing to fill as we speak. So LaShana had the skills. LaunchCode went to bat for her. And today, she’s a systems engineer at MasterCard.
"Now, LaShana—it’s a great story, but understand this—MasterCard wants to hire more folks like LaShana. Moreover, 40% of LaunchCode’s first class came in unemployed. 90% of its graduates were hired full time, with an average starting salary of $50,000 a year.
"So that’s what’s already happening, but it’s happening at a small scale. And what we need to do is expand it." —President Obama
