Mel McGee has been a computer programmer and teacher for the past 20 years. Now, as CEO of We Can Code IT, McGee and community outreach director Shana Mysko are holding coding boot camps that are targeted at getting women and minorities careers in IT fields. The boot camps are held in their new offices at LaunchHouse.

“There will be one million unfilled jobs in IT by 2020,” explains McGee. “It’s a very in-demand industry and it continue to grow. Our whole economy is becoming IT based. There’s such a lack of diversity in IT. Employers would like to have more diversity.”
 
We Can Code IT held its first boot camp in March, and has partnered with several area employers, such as Hyland Software and OEConnection, to place its graduates in jobs. The next part-time coding boot camp starts this Saturday, June 20. The class meets Saturdays and Sundays from 8am-4pm for five months.
 
The cost of the program is $10,000, but women and minorities are eligible for a $1,000 grant. Starting with the upcoming session, We Can Code IT is testing a program where students don’t pay the tuition until they get a job.
 
“We’re trying to make it very appealing,” says McGee. “We have bent over backwards to make this doable for our students, who are coming from jobs where they are underemployed and unemployed. So we are offering an option where we don’t get paid until they get a job. We’re putting our money where our mouth is.”
 
We Can Code IT is also offering a free one-hour program, Programming Experience, on Thursday, June 18 at 7pm at LaunchHouse to learn about an IT career. Register through Meetup.
 
Registration for the part-time boot camp ends Thursday, June 18. Click here to apply for the program. The next full-time boot camp starts September 8.

Inspired by a project in the Twin Cities, Waterloo Arts District leaders used art projects to draw new customers and keep businesses alive.

Mike Kister likes to look out for the little guy. As a veteran entrepreneur – having started four internet service, e-commerce and web companies – Kister’s latest venture, Acceleration Systems, offers faster internet speeds and enhanced bandwidth on a subscription basis to small companies that previously couldn’t afford such services.

With Acceleration Systems’ cloud-based tools, customers can see download speeds 10 times faster and uploads 17 times faster than a regular internet connection. “That’s a pretty dramatic kind of improvement,” Kister, president and CEO, says.
 
“Bandwidth optimization has been around for a while, but it’s only available in Fortune 1000 companies for the past decade,” says Kister. “With our cloud-based monthly subscription, now bandwidth optimization is affordable to small businesses.”
 
Kister and his team have been working on their technology for two years and filed patents in January 2013. A year ago, the group had its first working prototype. “We then went on a fundraising tour and two weeks later we were fully funded,” he says. “We took the prototype and had a working model in eight months.”
 
The company headquarters are in Northfield, just three miles from Kister’s home. Acceleration Systems also has offices in Philadelphia, R&D offices in Lexington, Kentucky and four sales offices throughout the eastern United States. The company recently hired two additional engineers to its team of 18.
 
“We’ll get them up to speed and then hire a couple of more,” says Kister of their recent hiring. “We’re just growing like gangbusters right now. We’re scrambling to keep up with demand. It’s a lot of fun.”  
 
Kister envisions Acceleration Systems’ software will eventually be in all sorts of computer devices. “Ultimately, this technology will be embedded in your cable modem, embedded in your smart phone,” he says. “We have additional twists we put on the problem – businesses with multiple locations can tie together through private cloud services.”

 

When students head to college, they expect to received four years of learning and, hopefully, to graduate with a career plan and a good job lined up. But Tom Roulston noticed a disturbing discrepancy. “Seventy percent of seniors really don’t know what they want to do when they graduate,” he says. “And 50 percent are unemployed or underemployed when they graduate.”
 
So Roulston created Trust Navigator, a multi-tiered program that supplements the book smarts taught in colleges with some networking, life lessons and guidance to prepare students for successful careers. Trust Navigator will work with colleges to provide the “real world” component of education.
 
“We have created a platform with schools that allows you to take a lot of different tests, identify interests, passions, strengths and weaknesses,” Roulston explains. “We’ve archived interviews with hundreds of thousands of individuals, asking them ‘what do you do, how did you get started, how much money did you make when you started and what was your career path?’”
 
The Trust Navigator program has four components. First, students take classes in addition to their academic work, that teach “real world” lessons. “There are classes that supplement academic work – life skills, communication skills, financial literacy, how to buy healthcare insurance, networking and communications,”
 
Second, Trust Navigator offers experiential learning, with events that re-engage alumni with the campus. The third component involves an online form to partner students with different organizations and identify career interests.
 
The fourth tier focuses on success coaching and testing and surveys to identify career paths. “Someone who will sit with these students every month and ask them what courses they are taking,” says Roulston.
 
Trust Navigator is a “pay-to-play” program that Roulston says will alleviate the problem of college grads with tons of debt and no job, as well as encourage alumni to be more involved with their alma maters. “Large gift giving has increased over the years, but annual fund participation has dropped pretty dramatically,” says Roulston of alumni support. “More and more kids aren’t finding jobs right away, don’t have money and blame the colleges. There’s $1.3 trillion in student debt.”
 
Roulston closed his investment research business last year to focus on Trust Navigator. He plans to be in five to 10 colleges of varying sizes this fall.

The monthly open-air market, which is set for this weekend, brings together over 30 eclectic local makers and food purveyors.

A group of civic hackers explored how transparency can be used to monitor the new consent decree and address disparity.

Saidah Farrell has always enjoyed baking with her two daughters. While cupcakes were their favorite confection to make, the three always used a box mix. But when Farrell lost her job as a help desk manager almost six years ago, she decided it was time for a career change. “When you lose your job, what are you going to do,” she asks. “You either find another job or go back to school.” Farrell decided to go back to school.
 
In 2010 Farrell enrolled at Cuyahoga Community College to earn her associate of applied business degree in hospitality management with a concentration in culinary arts. This weekend will be the grand opening of Olivia Rose Community Bake Shop at 16832 Chagrin Boulevard in Shaker Heights. Farrell runs the bakery with the help of her two daughters, Olivia, 12, and Rose, 16.
 
“The oldest works on the cupcakes and croissants, while the younger one does the cookies,” Farrell explains. “I went back to school and then I saw my 16-year-old making croissants from scratch. You never realize how much they pay attention of you.”

Farrell received a lot of help to make her vision a reality. She went through ECDI for help securing loans get things off the ground.  “I started off needing nearly $20,000 but if you don’t have collateral, it’s hard to get a loan, she says. “ECDI got me $15,000 in loans through the SBA, the City of Shaker Heights and Cuyahoga County.”

Farrell has been marketing her bakery mostly through Facebook and has already gotten a lot of support from the community. Word has gotten out about her macaroons – especially her maple bacon macaroons. Other goodies include croissants, cookies, eclairs and cinnamon rolls. All of her creations use natural ingredients.

Farrell, who taught baking before opening her shop, plans to offer baking workshops, classes and kids' baking parties at the shop. She also welcomes other area bakers to bake and sell at her shop. Eventually, she plans to exhibit the works of local artists on a regular basis.

The grand opening runs Friday, June 12 through Sunday, June 14 with the ribbon cutting on Saturday.

Seventeen companies in various stages of development pitched their causes to about 30 local investors last Thursday, June 4 at MAGNET’s ProtoTech: Invest at the Metropolitan at The 9. All of the companies are in significant fund-raising mode.

“It was a good event, it was a lot of fun,” says Dave Crain, executive director of the Incubator at MAGNET and ProtoTech organizer. “I don’t think people realized how many great startups are in the region. There were 17 presenters and not a dud in the group.”
 
Crain traveled to other entrepreneurial hubs around the country to research “investment summits,” or pitch events geared toward attracting investors. ProtoTech: Invest, was the first event of its kind in the state, Crain says. “No one is really doing it in Ohio, statewide,” he says. “Great entrepreneurial regions do these all the time.”
 
In fact, Crain says he will consider hosting ProtoTech: Invest a couple of times a year, based on feedback he heard from investors in attendance. “There are lots of great opportunities, lot of great companies, but we need more money in the region,” he says. “I would tell the investors, when we do this next time, call all your friends on the coasts.”
 
While investors on the East and West coasts have started to take notice of Cleveland’s entrepreneurial scene. “I do think it’s changing,” Crain says. “The coasts have a much more developed ecosystem out there.”
 
But Crain enjoyed hearing about the progress of many of the startups presenting on Thursday, such as Rick Pollack’s 3-D printer manufacturer MakerGear. “I know Rick, but I never realized they are the number-one rated company on Amazon,” Crain says. “They’re asking for money to fund their growth. It’s fun to hear how much they’ve grown. There’s a breadth of opportunity here, from life sciences to products.”

Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights and Lakewood are on the forefront of using the CDC model.

Startup Scaleup, a daylong event on June 17th, will offer resources, networking -- and ice cream -- for Cleveland’s startup businesses.

Northeast Ohio is still a mega manufacturing center for one thing: theatre arts. And when it comes to summer theatre opportunities, parents are spoiled for choice.

This weekend, view a never-before-seen slice of Cleveland rock history, laugh with the Angry Ladies of Improv, hit the dance floor at Sanctuary, celebrate Praxis Fiber Workshop’s grand opening and more.

Engaging with patrons and the community has always been a priority for Cleveland Public Library, says youth services librarian Maria Estrella. CPL is taking this all-important mission on the road this summer with a brand new "book bike."

The bike, actually an oversized orange tricycle, will serve nearby neighborhoods as a roving book depository and checkout station. Community members will be able to sign up for library cards on the spot, and search for reading materials in the system catalog thanks to the bike's capability as a traveling Wi-Fi hotspot.

"We'll have popular books and new releases as well as children's books," says Estrella.

The bike, introduced to the public on May 29 in the main library's Eastman Reading Garden, will act as a roaming literacy advocate and outreach tool at downtown events like Walnut Wednesday. Daycare and school visits will also be part of the bike's hot weather agenda.

"Local branches can borrow the bike, too," says Estrella. "It's going to be all over the place."

The three-wheeled library joins CPL's BookBox, a mobile unit of the main library that will offer its wares this summer at University Circle for the Wade Oval Wednesdays concert series. Both book-distributing entities are meant to reach communities lacking easy library access, with the hope of catching interest from downtown Cleveland pedestrians.

Ultimately, CPL's newest initiative is pedaling a creative way to implement library services, Estrella maintains.

"The bike is a wonderful opportunity to get information to people and show them what we're about," she says. "It's great to be able to bring the library to the community." 

 Last summer, Jenny Bendis Goe, artist and owner of Jewelry by Jenny, was touring Coventry with Angie Hetrick, director of the Coventry Village Special Improvement District. Goe, who has lived in the area for her entire life, was heartbroken by the amount of vacant shops at the top of the hill.

So, Goe made it her mission to transform the vacancies to thriving storefronts, starting with her own. She contacted landlord Lewis Zipkin in August, and after some persistence and a business plan, Zipkin agreed to lease Goe former Phoenix Coffee space.  
 
In January Goe opened In the 216, a store that features not only Goe’s artwork but the word of nearly 60 other local artists.
 
Last Thursday, May 28, Goe officially held a grand opening for In the 216 – offering more than 200 guests food, drinks and a look at some of the works for sale at the store.  “There are 58 small businesses represented here,” says Goe. “I have works from $2 to $3,000.”
 
Goe decided to postpone the grand opening until she had her bearings and the weather improved. “It was a little nerve wracking when we first opened up, but all of the Coventry veterans are right, it’s gotten increasingly better,” she says. “I feel like Coventry is just the perfect place for this. Business has doubled, if not tripled since we first opened.”
 
Bodega Coventry next door served food at the grand opening, and encouraged guests to come have a drink on the patio, while burlesque star Bella Sin welcomed people on the street. The event was a success, with both familiar faces and strangers in attendance. “It was fantastic, it was wonderful,” Goe says.
 
In addition to her husband, Steve, Goe has two of the artists helping her out in the store, and just had two high school seniors interested in pursuing art perform their senior projects at In the 216.
 
Now Goe is moving ahead with the next part of her vision for the empty space on Coventry. “I’d really like to see exhibits in the [former] Strickland’s Custard space,” she says. “Not just for artists. I hope anything we do will encourage businesses to open in the empty spaces.”  Goe has a few artists in mind who would like to exhibit in the space. She is talking to Zipkin about her plans to implement exhibits or studios in the area.