Futures and Options provides career-readiness workshops and the Internship Program for our strategic partners, leveraging our expertise in youth career development and creating increased opportunities for New York City students.
This year, Futures and Options was thrilled to pilot The Externship Experience, an employer-driven remote career exploration program, with Salesforce, a longstanding strategic partner. The program offered mentorship, skills trainings, and project-based learning to 15 young people from across the city, introducing them to a range of careers at Salesforce and helping them connect their individual goals and passions to Salesforce’s greater mission of improving the world through technology.
“Salesforce designed the program to include opportunities for coaching and support from employees with a diverse range of backgrounds.”
Salesforce designed the program to include opportunities for coaching and support from employees with a diverse range of backgrounds. This included junior team members who could describe their transitions from school to work, representatives from Salesforce’s many Employee Resource Groups who described their experiences identifying community within the company, and more experienced team members who acted as mentors and advisors to students as they participated in skill-building trainings and developed their final presentations. At the end of the week-long program, one participant emphasized that these opportunities for relationship-building were the most beneficial aspect of the program, noting that “the coaching and one-on-one opportunities were invaluable. The advice I got really helped me understand what being successful in a career means to me.”
We creatively partner with businesses to provide meaningful internships, externships, and career exploration opportunities for students to learn about potential career paths and build professional networks.