In the north part of the Loop, 20 people will commit to being in an office space from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, for four months, forming a cohort ready to absorb the latest the tech world has to offer.
By the end of their time at IC Stars, they will have amassed 1,000 hours of IT training—what a visiting industry professional called the equivalent of a master’s in IT—while being paid a small stipend to solve a current technological program for an actual corporation. CEOs want to hang out with them and interrogate them about their developing skills. These individuals come from all sorts of backgrounds generally considered underserved: all of the members of this current cohort are people of color.