Tech EDGE: CS4NE with Special Guest, Shonna Dorsey

Tech EDGE Author

11/13/2024 Added

1 Plays

Description

CS4NE, Computer Science for Nebraska - with Special Guest, Shonna Dorsey. University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Technology (Tech) Education In Digital and Global Environments (EDGE) Innovation in Teacher Education College of Education and Human Sciences | Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.000](upbeat music)
[00:00:06.330]Hi, and welcome to CS4NE.
[00:00:09.780]I'm Guy Trainin, a professor
[00:00:11.100]at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
[00:00:12.825]And I'm Kimberly Ingraham-Beck from Gretna Public Schools.
[00:00:15.750]And today we have a treat for you.
[00:00:17.790]We have the interview with Shonna Dorsey.
[00:00:20.293]So tell us a little bit about Shonna.
[00:00:22.680]So she is with the Intern Nebraska Program,
[00:00:26.160]and she's going to be talking to us about some opportunities
[00:00:29.022]for students across Nebraska to intern
[00:00:32.310]and get a little bit of job experience.
[00:00:34.470]And Intern Nebraska is a collaboration between government
[00:00:37.560]and private business across the state in an effort
[00:00:41.340]to make sure that our students in high school
[00:00:44.730]and beyond get experience working with and for businesses
[00:00:49.200]with the idea of showing everybody that one, we are for you,
[00:00:54.300]we want to make sure you are successful,
[00:00:56.130]and the second thing is that there are lots
[00:00:58.260]of opportunities in state
[00:00:59.760]and you don't have to leave the state
[00:01:01.020]to have a great opportunity.
[00:01:02.310]Yeah, absolutely.
[00:01:03.480]So let's go to the interview.
[00:01:05.670]Thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:01:08.524]Can you tell us a little bit
[00:01:09.960]about yourself and your background?
[00:01:11.700]Yeah. Hi, I'm Shonna Dorsey.
[00:01:13.320]I'm with Mutual of Omaha Foundation
[00:01:15.120]and I oversee Intern, Powered by Aksarben,
[00:01:17.430]and also the Nebraska Tech Collaborative.
[00:01:19.710]I am a Nebraska native, born and raised in North Omaha.
[00:01:23.850]And went to, because we always have to talk about
[00:01:26.970]like schools we went to, but went to Omaha North
[00:01:29.610]and UNO for undergrad and graduate school.
[00:01:32.250]Studied management information systems at UNO
[00:01:34.710]with really a stronger focus,
[00:01:36.330]or I should say interest in project management
[00:01:40.257]and those sort of fields.
[00:01:42.762]And I did start off in computer science and then switched.
[00:01:46.290]But anyhow, I've worked in like tech related fields
[00:01:48.900]for a really long time, like almost 25 years,
[00:01:51.510]which is so crazy. Oh wow.
[00:01:53.247]But it's been a lot of fun.
[00:01:54.150]I've done everything from help desk to business analyst.
[00:01:57.180]I helped start a company
[00:01:58.380]five, seven, how many years ago now?
[00:02:00.600]Seven years ago that we sold. Oh, I'm sorry.
[00:02:04.020]It was 10 years ago. I just realized that today.
[00:02:06.750]So we started it 10 years ago and sold it seven years ago.
[00:02:09.875]So very exciting.
[00:02:12.090]But have been back in Nebraska since January of this year,
[00:02:15.510]I'm sorry, January of 2023 working at Aksarben.
[00:02:20.100]And it's been super great being back here.
[00:02:22.797]Awesome, awesome, awesome.
[00:02:26.100]So tell us a little bit about what Intern Nebraska is.
[00:02:29.820]Yeah, so Intern Nebraska, it's been around
[00:02:31.680]for a really long time, actually like, I wanna say 11 years.
[00:02:34.904]Oh wow.
[00:02:35.737]Yeah, so the Department of Economic Development
[00:02:37.272]has run it for a really long time.
[00:02:39.138]And just a couple of years ago,
[00:02:41.395]the governor's office set aside $20 million
[00:02:45.232]for a two year grant for the internship program
[00:02:48.732]and the Department of Economic Development said
[00:02:52.200]we wanna partner with somebody in Nebraska
[00:02:54.870]who can help us grow this program.
[00:02:57.150]So Aksarben was selected
[00:02:58.378]and so that's why it's called Intern NE Powered by Aksarben.
[00:03:01.410]But the state runs the grant side
[00:03:03.990]and I'll talk about what that is,
[00:03:05.280]and then Aksarben runs the outreach,
[00:03:08.970]the statewide outreach side.
[00:03:10.470]So before I get too much into it,
[00:03:12.300]because I know you have other questions about this,
[00:03:14.670]I'll just say really high level what it is.
[00:03:16.530]So two year $20 million grant
[00:03:19.067]that offers businesses resources,
[00:03:21.930]financial resources specifically,
[00:03:24.202]to offset the cost of internships.
[00:03:27.480]And it's in the form of reimbursement.
[00:03:29.100]So you pay the expense, request reimbursement,
[00:03:32.010]and you can get a matching reimbursement back
[00:03:35.820]depending on the category of expense,
[00:03:38.170]which we can get into as well.
[00:03:40.350]But yeah, so that's what the state offers.
[00:03:42.120]And they have several application cycles
[00:03:44.250]throughout the year.
[00:03:45.083]We're currently in one, as of this recording anyhow,
[00:03:48.150]that wraps up on November 27th, 2024.
[00:03:52.220]So there's some time to apply.
[00:03:54.450]But yeah, that's it at a high level
[00:03:56.790]and I'll wait for more questions and I'll share.
[00:03:59.331]Awesome.
[00:04:01.410]So how does the Intern Nebraska program work?
[00:04:04.440]Yeah, so the way it works, and it's funny that,
[00:04:07.470]because I have to talk about it in two parts,
[00:04:09.118]but yeah let me just talk about it
[00:04:12.420]from the state side then the Aksarben side.
[00:04:14.280]So from the state side, as an employer,
[00:04:16.476]you would first go to either internneb.com
[00:04:20.340]or Aksarben's website, which is internneb.org.
[00:04:24.330]And if you have not ever created a profile with the state
[00:04:27.450]for this program, you would go out there
[00:04:28.980]and register your business.
[00:04:30.720]And one of the things I like to mention to people is that
[00:04:33.307]the state evaluates every business registration.
[00:04:37.380]So you don't just sign up and apply.
[00:04:39.404]You request to be added to the platform,
[00:04:42.810]which is great because they really wanna make sure
[00:04:44.940]that the businesses that are a part
[00:04:46.980]of the Intern Nebraska platform are actually organizations
[00:04:50.940]that have Nebraska based operations.
[00:04:53.130]That's super key.
[00:04:54.480]So once you're approved to have a presence
[00:04:58.470]on the platform, you can then apply
[00:05:00.930]for the internship grant.
[00:05:02.550]And it is a super easy process.
[00:05:03.930]I've talked so many people through this,
[00:05:06.570]but you can apply for the grant
[00:05:08.280]and it's going to ask for what is the type of job
[00:05:11.490]that intern will do.
[00:05:13.230]They're really looking for jobs that are in that high wage,
[00:05:15.960]high skill, high demand space.
[00:05:17.970]So tech obviously fits really well.
[00:05:20.730]And I know we'll talk a bit about the Computer Science
[00:05:22.920]and Tech Education Act in this conversation,
[00:05:25.650]but there are a lot of tech opening and they pay super well.
[00:05:30.960]As I was reviewing applications a long time ago,
[00:05:33.193]I recall seeing a software development internship
[00:05:36.480]that was paying $30 an hour, which is-
[00:05:38.790]Whoa! Really great.
[00:05:40.050]I know.
[00:05:40.883]So it's good to be, but companies
[00:05:43.049]are having to be competitive
[00:05:45.120]because to retain top talent in Nebraska, we are competing
[00:05:49.350]with lots of other companies from other places
[00:05:52.710]and a lot of them are offering remote internships.
[00:05:55.440]So that's a tricky part.
[00:05:57.870]But anyhow, yeah, you go through that application process,
[00:06:00.180]make sure that job description is super clear,
[00:06:02.520]it should help a student evaluate whether the types
[00:06:07.110]of responsibilities they'll have in that job align
[00:06:09.390]with their career field
[00:06:10.924]and just be super clear and detailed.
[00:06:13.800]Then every internship is required to be assigned a mentor,
[00:06:17.970]every intern's required to be assigned a mentor.
[00:06:20.700]Oh. Yeah.
[00:06:22.020]Al internships are paid.
[00:06:25.290]So there are no unpaid internships in the platform,
[00:06:27.870]or for awardees I should say.
[00:06:30.150]And yeah, I'm thinking about it.
[00:06:33.030]So mentorship, job description, hourly pay,
[00:06:37.800]higher scores if you are based outside
[00:06:40.648]of Douglas Sarpy or Lancaster County.
[00:06:43.350]So really trying to grow the number
[00:06:45.450]of internships in greater Nebraska.
[00:06:47.670]Awesome. Yeah.
[00:06:48.676]It's really great.
[00:06:49.800]And then, like I mentioned before, just
[00:06:51.780]those competitive wages are really important as well.
[00:06:55.270]So that's on the state side.
[00:06:56.670]And they do, I think, a really good job of,
[00:06:59.220]if you are an employer who goes through the process
[00:07:01.890]and you've never done it before,
[00:07:02.940]so you run into issues on your application,
[00:07:04.906]they will we'll work with you to help get
[00:07:07.200]that application to a good spot.
[00:07:10.020]That's awesome.
[00:07:11.004]Yeah, I think so too, because we really want it
[00:07:13.200]to be a program that is, well utilized by many.
[00:07:17.520]And then on the Aksarben side,
[00:07:19.110]we post a lot of events, either post, co-host or promote
[00:07:22.920]events across the state
[00:07:24.000]to help employers connect with students,
[00:07:26.835]students to learn from employers.
[00:07:29.580]So that could be attending a speed networking event
[00:07:31.740]or a panel discussion event where students will, you know,
[00:07:35.430]hear a set of questions,
[00:07:36.480]but then we'd love to give them opportunities
[00:07:38.220]to ask questions that we're not thinking of.
[00:07:41.175]One of the things that we've started to do,
[00:07:43.110]or I just started this yesterday, so I'm like, okay,
[00:07:45.240]we're gonna be doing this from now on.
[00:07:47.010]But one of the things that we started
[00:07:49.620]to do is ask students questions like,
[00:07:52.627]"Tell us how Nebraska can be a more appealing place
[00:07:57.233]for you to wanna stay."
[00:07:59.670]What are some ways employers can add value to internships?
[00:08:03.000]Things like that.
[00:08:03.833]Because a lot of employers, or at least in my network,
[00:08:06.930]we're always trying new things,
[00:08:08.640]but I think having students inform those
[00:08:11.400]decisions makes a lot of sense.
[00:08:14.190]Lemme think if there's anything else,
[00:08:15.210]But our main thing at Aksarben is just making sure
[00:08:17.520]that we can help get as many employers aware of the grant
[00:08:20.760]as possible, get them into that application pool so
[00:08:24.300]that they can participate in this amazing opportunity.
[00:08:28.080]That sounds fantastic. Yeah.
[00:08:30.750]So how can Intern Nebraska support computer science
[00:08:33.240]education in schools?
[00:08:35.160]Yeah, I think one of the big ways is that just by nature
[00:08:38.490]of the way the grant is written
[00:08:40.350]and the types of internships the state is looking
[00:08:43.740]to support, we, I think through the employer network,
[00:08:49.050]just continue to offer more of those tech based internships.
[00:08:51.930]Now, I know computer science is tricky,
[00:08:54.810]especially the standards that are being rolled out
[00:08:58.020]because it's not all about software engineering.
[00:09:00.600]And so some people might think, well,
[00:09:02.914]if I'm being trained in computer science,
[00:09:05.490]that means that I'm being prepared
[00:09:07.440]for like I was just saying like a software
[00:09:09.180]engineering career path.
[00:09:10.290]But not necessarily, there are
[00:09:11.400]so many different avenues we've got,
[00:09:13.380]I've seen internships in the system,
[00:09:16.440]in the artificial intelligence space.
[00:09:18.300]I've seen digital marketing.
[00:09:21.870]Graphic design, all sorts of positions
[00:09:25.009]that do require a technical background.
[00:09:27.210]They just don't sound technical sometimes.
[00:09:29.890]Yeah.
[00:09:30.723]But, but yeah, so I would say like the thing
[00:09:33.570]that we can do through Intern Nebraska I think is just be
[00:09:36.630]more encouraging of employers to get those internships,
[00:09:39.000]those internship opportunities into the system.
[00:09:41.610]I'll say this, in our last strategy session for the NTC,
[00:09:44.190]one of the things we were talking about
[00:09:45.600]and we implemented this year was this program
[00:09:48.690]called a high school tech ambassador program.
[00:09:51.000]And it's funny because it's like not anything
[00:09:54.720]like you've never heard of it before,
[00:09:56.040]but it's just packaged in a way.
[00:09:57.598]So what we did was we said we will have NTC partners,
[00:10:02.700]and these are companies that are Nebraska based companies
[00:10:05.220]obviously, but NTC partners match them up with a school
[00:10:09.810]that's in their area.
[00:10:11.014]And over the course of a semester
[00:10:15.180]and ultimately a year have that school and the NTC partner
[00:10:18.750]come up with different ways to engage students.
[00:10:21.450]So it's basically early career exploration in tech.
[00:10:24.904]Nice. Yeah. In IT.
[00:10:27.360]And so one of the things that was really great
[00:10:29.160]that came outta that is one of our partners, ConAgra,
[00:10:31.900]they partnered with Omaha North
[00:10:34.380]and the students were really interested in careers in like
[00:10:37.290]the digital marketing technical space.
[00:10:40.814]And the thing that's so great about Omaha North students
[00:10:44.236]being able to tell ConAgra, "This is what we want to see,
[00:10:48.930]we wanna meet people in those career fields,"
[00:10:50.820]is that now you don't just send software engineers
[00:10:53.160]to talk about computer science
[00:10:54.450]because yeah, sure you can do that.
[00:10:55.627]But if the students are really interested in
[00:10:57.454]that digital marketing space, which is incredible,
[00:11:00.360]pays well, all the things, then let them meet professionals
[00:11:03.510]that do that so that they can ask those questions
[00:11:05.161]and understand what that career really looks like, right?
[00:11:07.800]Yeah.
[00:11:08.880]It's just really kind of shortening the gap
[00:11:10.560]and then giving schools and our partners customized ways
[00:11:15.090]to add value and help those students
[00:11:18.810]see themselves in these careers.
[00:11:20.550]So that's just one example,
[00:11:21.630]but we're working on rolling that out
[00:11:23.550]to many more schools.
[00:11:24.383]This year we had five schools participate,
[00:11:26.070]one in Sydney, one in Battle Creek,
[00:11:28.020]and then three in the Omaha area.
[00:11:31.110]Nice. Yeah.
[00:11:32.250]So just more of that.
[00:11:33.210]And then on the flip side of that, so
[00:11:34.290]that side is really all about the students, but,
[00:11:37.020]and this other one is also about the students,
[00:11:38.940]but there's a financial benefit or incentive for teachers.
[00:11:41.760]But we also host educator job shadow.
[00:11:44.610]So it's like a one week long experience
[00:11:47.190]where an educator will go into a company
[00:11:49.612]and depending on the company's work mode,
[00:11:53.730]it might be hybrid, in person, or virtual.
[00:11:56.160]But anyway, it's a one week paid experience.
[00:11:59.520]Last year we offered 25 an hour for 40 hours,
[00:12:02.670]so a thousand bucks, for a teacher to just go,
[00:12:05.167]I won't say hang out, but basically job shadow,
[00:12:09.540]job shadow with people in IT.
[00:12:11.640]So great ways, if you think about it for an employer
[00:12:15.780]and educator to start to build those connections,
[00:12:18.000]which we know are key
[00:12:19.260]And then also for that educator
[00:12:20.520]to get a better understanding of what jobs
[00:12:22.830]in IT actually are and how much variety there is now,
[00:12:26.370]what these companies look like on the inside, all of that.
[00:12:29.880]And then in addition to that, we're like,
[00:12:32.370]what else could come out of that is a teacher might make a
[00:12:35.280]connection within a company that they can then bring back
[00:12:37.800]to the school and introduce more kids to these companies
[00:12:42.090]through these connections they make.
[00:12:43.500]So again, we're working on expanding that as well.
[00:12:46.590]But we really truly believe it's all about just making
[00:12:48.810]connections and creating experiences
[00:12:51.019]that are meaningful to people.
[00:12:52.650]Not just like, let's just send, like I said,
[00:12:54.663]a software engineer into your school
[00:12:56.670]because it's a computer science job.
[00:12:58.288]Nothing wrong with software engineering, it's a great field,
[00:13:00.690]but there's such a variety.
[00:13:02.880]Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
[00:13:04.842]Awesome.
[00:13:06.570]Can you explain the application process
[00:13:08.460]and eligibility criteria for both students and employers?
[00:13:11.130]I guess you talked about employers just a little bit.
[00:13:13.680]Yeah, yeah, I did.
[00:13:15.690]But let's see, on the student side, it's pretty similar.
[00:13:18.690]So with the student side, there's no
[00:13:20.013]like confirm you're a student.
[00:13:21.780]I have a student account
[00:13:22.890]because I wanted to see what it looked like.
[00:13:24.349]No one checked that I was a student.
[00:13:26.940]But you basically go to the same portal
[00:13:29.280]that employers go to.
[00:13:31.320]And actually, I'm sorry, that's not quite right,
[00:13:33.810]but there's a sign in for students
[00:13:36.030]and employers, but it's the same backend.
[00:13:38.580]But anyway, you'll go in,
[00:13:40.050]you can create a profile very quickly,
[00:13:41.880]like it takes a minute, a couple minutes.
[00:13:43.920]But once you create that profile
[00:13:45.390]with just your basic information, you can build on that
[00:13:47.880]and create basically a LinkedIn presence within
[00:13:51.630]that platform that can be shared publicly.
[00:13:53.970]So you can create a public profile link that you can add
[00:13:56.430]to your resume if you don't have a LinkedIn.
[00:13:58.830]But the thing I love about the student side
[00:14:01.830]of the Simplicity platform, that's what it's called,
[00:14:04.230]Simplicity, is that the LinkedIn version
[00:14:07.800]for students really targets or tailors to,
[00:14:11.850]or is tailored for student experiences.
[00:14:14.820]So it asks for things like projects you worked on,
[00:14:18.360]volunteer experiences, things like that.
[00:14:20.100]It's not so much share your work history, it's more about,
[00:14:23.585]what have you done as a student.
[00:14:25.470]But yeah, once you've done that, you can go out
[00:14:27.690]and be applying for jobs right away.
[00:14:29.561]There are different career explorer types of tools.
[00:14:33.630]Like there's even an assessment on there
[00:14:36.690]that you can take that can help you see what types
[00:14:39.210]of careers could be a good fit
[00:14:40.680]for you based on your interests and things like that.
[00:14:43.110]So that's out there.
[00:14:44.490]Awesome. And then, yeah, it's great.
[00:14:45.750]And then there's also a career explorer which allows you
[00:14:48.990]to just say like, I'm interested,
[00:14:50.490]I keep going back software engineering,
[00:14:52.050]but I'm interested in software engineering.
[00:14:53.880]I can type that in. It'll tell me the average salary.
[00:14:56.460]This is national data from Bureau of Labor Statistics,
[00:14:59.580]but it'll share national, like salary averages,
[00:15:03.580]the types of skills that are required
[00:15:05.610]from soft skills to technical skills.
[00:15:08.116]Things like that.
[00:15:09.210]So it's really a great pretty robust resource.
[00:15:12.030]All right, well thank you so much.
[00:15:13.740]I really appreciate you talking with me
[00:15:15.990]and answering my questions.
[00:15:17.778]Thank you.
[00:15:20.240]So that was enlightening,
[00:15:22.170]and I really love Shonna's energy around this issue.
[00:15:26.550]She's really focused on what we can do for our students
[00:15:31.200]and for young people around the state.
[00:15:33.090]So what else can we really add to what she's talked about?
[00:15:37.590]So I think the website is really a great resource
[00:15:40.936]just to have kids just look and see
[00:15:43.770]what kind of opportunities there might be,
[00:15:45.150]even if they're not yet necessarily in a position to do it,
[00:15:47.760]or if it's something they wanna do in college, maybe.
[00:15:49.728]Just look at what's out there on the website.
[00:15:52.440]And again, it is about opportunity.
[00:15:56.430]So really getting ready for opportunity early,
[00:16:00.090]seeing what's out there, what the options are
[00:16:03.540]as even as you are choosing your path in high school
[00:16:06.390]and you're thinking, do I really want
[00:16:07.950]to take something about cybersecurity or something else?
[00:16:11.550]What do I need to know to get out there?
[00:16:14.310]Knowing what the options are
[00:16:16.380]and what people are looking for helps you craft that path.
[00:16:21.000]Absolutely. All right
[00:16:22.890]And we'll see you next time on CS4NE.
[00:16:26.224](upbeat music)

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Tech EDGE: CS4NE with Special Guest, Shonna Dorsey

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments