BRONX TIMES REPORTER,BTR JULY 10-16, 2020 7
Jerelyn Rodriguez was
disappointed but not discouraged.
While seeking
grants for her startup, The
Knowledge House, a Bronxbased
digital tech school,
she was often told by funders
that what she was doing --
exposing Bronx youth to careers
in the tech ecosystem
-- had too many challenges
to be investment-worthy.
“They would discourage
me and say that for the population
we were serving, coding
is too hard,” said Rodriguez,
who co-founded The
Knowledge House in 2014
with Joe Carrano.
Undeterred, Rodriguez
kept going. “We received
grants, and went back to
those funders and showed
them that there’s a market
for this, there’s a demand for
this, and then we got their
buy-in.”
Jennifer Paulino was one
of the many examples that
proved Rodriguez’ point. In
2016 she signed up for The
Knowledge House’s Intro
to Tech Entrepreneurship
class, where she learned
business skills along with
basic HTML and CSS. Eventually
she took advanced
courses where she learned
backend coding, such as Python
and Django, and some
advanced JavaScript as
well.
“Really what piqued my
interest in The Knowledge
House was that I went to a
middle school where they actually
taught us how to code,
and it was something that I
always liked -- I hooked up
my friends’ MySpace pages
back in the day,” said Paulino.
“But I wasn’t really exposed
to it as much in high
school. I didn’t even think
about having a career in
this. But when I joined The
Knowledge House program,
I fell in love with it.”
Support from Capital One
has been a game-changer
for The Knowledge House.
“As a non-profi t startup, we
want to stay innovative,”
says Rodriguez. “But at the
same time we have to focus
on growth. And Capital One
has been that partner that
has invested in both innovation
and sustainability.”
As The Knowledge
House’s programs have transitioned
to a virtual environment
in light of the COVID-19
pandemic, its partnership
with Capital One has helped
the school navigate the challenges
of moving its digital
literacy and tech training
programs online through
technology and tools. Students
themselves have been
improving the technology
platform where the content
lives. This type of capability
is even more critical in light
of COVID-19 where there is
a growing dependence on
technology as the lifeline for
skills training and education.
Additionally, since
moving exclusively to remote
learning in March,
The Knowledge House has
needed to ensure that all
students and staff have adequate
internet access and
the necessary equipment
to continue programming
from home. The Knowledge
House has also tackled the
challenges of transitioning
its future programs and information
sessions from inperson
to online, supporting
its staff’s well-being, safety
and increasing its funder
outreach. Seeing such challenges
faced by many of its
non-profi t partners, Capital
One focused on increasing
digital access in communities
that needed it most, including
the Bronx, as part
of its larger COVID community
relief efforts.
That shared goal has
proved to be one of several
factors that made a partnership
with The Knowledge
House a perfect match.
“We’re so proud to support
Jerelyn’s mission and the
program because it’s focused
on the Bronx residents’
needs, helping with
their career trajectory and
overall economic growth,”
said Aleta Stampley, Capital
One’s Director of Community
Impact & Investing.
“At Capital One, we focus on
training the innovators of
tomorrow, investing in companies
and partnerships
with creative approaches
and bringing together problem
solvers to address diffi -
cult community and societal
challenges. Together, we
want to help change the face
of technology, fi nding, supporting
and training talent
that at times, others often
overlook.”
Rodriguez and her cofounder
Joe Carrano have
also been able to hire one of
their alumni as a full time
web developer, with Capital
One’s investment. “That
feels really good to hire our
own alumni,” said Rodriguez.
“Their continued partnership
has helped us create
jobs at our organization.”
Capital One collaborates
with The Knowledge House
in a variety of ways; many
employees volunteer, offering
fi nancial well-being
workshops for the organization
and students. One year
The Knowledge House participated
in a full day pro
bono volunteerism event
where employees helped
clean up outcomes data.
“Capital One has been a
key partner for us for more
than two years now,” said
Rodriguez. “We really look
forward to continuing our
partnership and growing
our impact in the Bronx.”
The impact is real. To
date, more than 1,750 students
have graduated from
The Knowledge House -- Jennifer
Paulino among them.
After completing her coursework,
she began freelancing,
then got a job coding for the
Department of Education,
and is now working for a
midtown tech startup called
KeyMe, while also creating
and coding two apps in her
downtime.
“I am a Black Latina, so I
don’t see a lot of people that
look like me in the fi eld. The
Knowledge House is making
great strides in creating employment
opportunities in
diverse communities, making
a long lasting impact,
something of which I’m very
proud to be a part of.”
To learn more about Capital
One visit www.capitalone.
com/about
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