Google announced that it is developing a college campus at its Mountain View campus to specifically train more historically black college/university graduates.
The inaugural program is expected to launch this summer with Howard University, known as the “Mecca” of HBCU’s. It will take in approximately 25-30 rising juniors and seniors at Howard currently majoring in computer science. The program is expected to last approximately 12 weeks and will be taught by Google senior executives and Howard faculty members.
“Howard West will continue Howard’s tradition of providing historically unprecedented access to opportunity, only now with a 21st century twist: Literal real estate at the center of the digital economy,” Bonita Stewart, Google’s vice president of global partnerships, said in a statement.
This new program will take place at existing Google offices. Google’s goal is to open Howard West to other HBCU grads by 2018.
Last year, Howard graduated 18 students in computer science, according to SF Chronicle. Google claims that neither Howard is being paid or vice versa in the development of this program.
A 2015 report showed that Blacks only make up approximately 5% of the tech industry. It also showed that Google staff only represents 1% Blacks, Facebook 1%, Apple 6% and HP leading the charge at 15%. And while the current U.S. census shows Blacks at approximately 13% of the U.S. population, there’s still more work to be done. But this new initiative between Google and HBCU’s could be a great start.
