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It was already flourishing across the Rio Grande in El Paso, where students at 23 schools are in the program this year.ĭuring the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual classroom options have allowed volunteers to participate remotely using video conferencing and other interactive features. TEALS has helped bring computer science skills to more than 93,000 students over the past 12 years, operating in 31 states, Washington, D.C., and British Columbia, currently involving more than 700 companies and 1,650 volunteers. CBTis 114 is the fourth school partnering with TEALS in this initial stage. Orlando Daniel Avitia, director of CECYT 22, a technical school for low-income students, says TEALS will give kids a wider panorama of potential careers. German Parra, a math and computer science teacher at COBACH 6, a general education school, welcomes the support to teach Python, a versatile programming language.
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The four Juárez schools already offer some computer science, but TEALS provides advanced curriculum from Carnegie Mellon University and professional training to help students and teachers learn more. “My vision as the principal is to give youths insight that there is more out there that they can achieve, that they can change the world and make a difference wherever they are,” Cital says.


She is nurturing them to become “young pioneers” who can look beyond their surroundings, transform their lives and inspire others to do the same. But Cital’s goals are larger than helping students find good jobs. Surrounded by dirt roads on the outskirts of town, Conalep III serves mostly students of workers in maquiladoras, or foreign-owned factories, where wages can be extremely low.

“Not only for students, but their families, city and country.” Conalep III principal Alma Rosa Cital “TEALS can open up a global opportunity for students,” says Alma Rosa Cital, principal at Conalep III, a technical school that prepares low-income students for specialized careers like electronics or business administration. The pilot program in Juárez uses a new approach that empowers local nonprofits to take the lead, making sure teachers and volunteers have the training and resources they need to teach students computer science to better equip them for promising careers. Last school year, it taught coding skills to 14,000 students in schools in the United States and Canada to help build better job opportunities. TEALS pairs technical volunteers from industry with curriculum and teachers to bring computer science education to underserved students. “You have to keep yourself updated with the latest technologies because this is what gives you a future,” he says. He’s interested in a food industry career like his parents, who didn’t finish high school, but is also studying industrial electricity and computer science so he can earn more and be part of the region’s growing digital economy. “This is a very cool opportunity, because it is helping people to learn about computers and get ahead in their lives,” says Delgado, who is 18, works at his family’s business and likes video games and dancing. Conalep III students (left to right) Roberto Delgado Muñoz, Daisy Aguilera Suarez and Alexis García Amador Their school, Conalep III, is one of four in Juárez now partnering with TEALS in the program’s first expansion into Mexico, and the first time the curriculum has been available in Spanish. Nearly two-thirds of employees here work in manufacturing, where many jobs are unskilled and pay an average of 267 pesos, or $13, a day.īut teenagers Aguilera, García and Delgado are working toward a different future by studying computer science with a Microsoft program called Technology Education and Literacy in Schools, or TEALS. Like many people in Juárez, the three parents work low-wage jobs to support their families. Roberto Delgado Muñoz’s father does construction when he’s not running the family’s busy food truck. Alexis García Amador’s father fixes cars and houses on weekends to make ends meet between shifts as an electronics factory supervisor. In Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican city brimming with factories just south of El Paso, Texas, Daisy Aguilera Suarez’s mother often goes home exhausted from 13-hour shifts sewing automobile air bags.
