In the spring of 2000, a young man walked into the Inner-City Computer Stars office in Chicago, determined to join this nonprofit’s digital skills training program and build a

future for himself in technology. But first he had to prove that he was ready for that journey.

“He was 17 or 18 years old when he applied,” recalls Sandee Kastrul, the CEO and a founder of i.c.stars. Kastrul says she asked him to “go and build a website and come back.”

So he did. “And this was back in the day, 20 years ago, so he had all these floppy disks with his code on it to show us what he had built. It was pretty incredible, and we said, ‘All

right, we’ve got to have this kid joining the cohort.’”

In the spring of 2000, a young man walked into the Inner-City Computer Stars office in Chicago, determined to join this nonprofit’s digital skills training program and build a

future for himself in technology. But first he had to prove that he was ready for that journey.

“He was 17 or 18 years old when he applied,” recalls Sandee Kastrul, the CEO and a founder of i.c.stars. Kastrul says she asked him to “go and build a website and come back.”

So he did. “And this was back in the day, 20 years ago, so he had all these floppy disks with his code on it to show us what he had built. It was pretty incredible, and we said, ‘All

right, we’ve got to have this kid joining the cohort.’”

CHICAGO – JUNE 12, 2020 – i.c.stars announced today its partnership with TechReady Illinois, an effort launched this week by P33 and Discovery Partners to help Illinois residents hurt by COVID-19 gain new digital skills.

More than one million Illinoisans filed for unemployment in the first nine weeks of the COVID-19 crisis, more than five times the same period of the Great Recession. The pandemic has further exacerbated the health and economic disparities among residents of underserved communities.

“For TechReady to advance inclusive tech growth, and to deliver tech-career opportunity to those who have historically been underrepresented in the digital economy like our Black and Latinx residents, we need partners who have a history and expertise working with these populations successfully,” said P33 Senior Vice President of Workforce Innovation Matthew Muench. “i.c.stars is a Chicago gem that […]

Two Chicago organizations that have gained attention for missions to expand and strengthen Chicago’s tech industry launched a new program to help provide inexpensive

computer science education to Illinoisans. P33, an effort by Chicago’s private-sector leaders to boost the city’s tech reputation, and the Discovery Partners Institute, a network of

research and innovation hubs in the South Loop, announced the initiative, called TechReady Illinois, on Monday.