In 2019, the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley began a partnership with Empowered Students, a nonprofit organization that provides a career coaching program to our Latinos In Technology Scholarship (LITS) Recipients. The program is a four week online micro-learning experience. Students commit to completing 10 minute a day activities, weekly group coaching calls via video chat, and access to a private LinkedIn group.

Through the Empowered Students’ career coaching program, LITS Scholars receive the skills needed to improve their possibilities of landing life-changing internships and jobs upon graduation.

This program is particularly important during the COVID-19 crisis to stay connected and support the scholars in securing internships and jobs. This is the third cohort of LITS from all over the nation that the Hispanic Foundation is supporting. This session, a total of 72 students come together every Tuesday night for their session.

Sean O’Keefe is an award-winning professor and career coach at Santa Clara University who started this program. He teaches in the LEAD Scholars program (first-generation college students) and the Business School, dating back to 2010.

“I am passionate about empowering students to take a proactive approach to career development because I had a professor as an undergrad who empowered me to land amazing internships and a job upon graduation without having any personal connections to those jobs”,  Sean shared.