One year later, INIT soars through Miami with new chapters, and opportunities in tech for community

By Krysten Brenlla

INIT, one of Miami’s largest organizations that aims to empower underserved communities and students to launch successful careers in tech, is growing bigger and faster than ever since Refresh Miami connected with the INIT last May. Now, everyone in South Florida can participate in all that INIT has to offer.

 “Throughout last year, we saw that there were so many people who were looking to break into tech or get involved with INIT, but they were not students,” said Cesar Villa-Garcia, co-founder of INIT, an FIU alumnus, and a product manager at American Express. “We saw that need, and after speaking with the City of Miami, we gained support from Venture Miami with a $300,000 grant to launch the INIT Miami chapter.”

As one of five INIT chapters, the INIT Miami chapter is a one-stop-shop for community involvement in Miami Tech, including job networking and preparation through the INIT Reach program, and technology exploration (specifically deep diving into what the tech industry has to offer through workshops, like artificial intelligence) through the INIT Explore program.

Additionally, INIT Miami took the model from their collegiate community service program, INIT Ignite, and gave it a new twist – now, parents of students and older community members in Miami can learn what the tech industry is all about with free educational workshops through the INIT Miami Ignite program.

“We decided to launch this new program to educate parents on what a career in tech for their children really means,” Villa-Garcia continued. “Growing up in Miami, with most of our parents being Hispanic or immigrants, they are only aware of traditional careers, like doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Most of them don’t know what a software engineer or product manager is. We wanted to bring that awareness to our community’s parents so they can motivate their kids, and push them in that direction for future careers in tech.”

Students at Miami Dade College can also look forward to all that INIT has to offer through INIT’s Explore and Reach programs, with new chapters launched in MDC’s Kendall, North, and Wolfson campuses.

In addition, this fall, students at the University of Miami (UM) can gear up for a new INIT UM chapter on campus, and can look forward to their very own hackathon through the INIT UM Hack program, which will launch in spring 2025.

“At INIT, we have two missions – one is to create community through Miami Tech, and two is to give back to the collegiate chapters through mentorship, teaching workshops, hackathons, and more,” Villa-Garcia said.

At FIU, students can participate in INIT’S six different programs, in addition to Explore and Reach. These include INIT Build, which inspires participants to build different projects; INIT Uplift, the organization’s mentorship program; INIT Hack, the organization’s hackathon program; and INIT Ignite, the organization’s community service program. Despite these programs being only available at FIU for now, INIT organizers are motivated to push individual chapters to explore all that INIT has to offer. The organization is a member of the Miami Tech Talent Coalition and was honored by Miami Tech Works this year for its “Tech Community Engagement.”

For the future, INIT hopes to continue expanding to more schools with computer science and information technology programs, such as Broward College, Nova Southeastern University, the University of Florida, the University of Central, and the University of South Florida.

Additionally, the organization is looking forward to continuing its work and outreach as a resource for the Miami Tech community, encouraging all to fulfill their dreams and future careers in the tech industry. INIT is a member of the Miami Tech Talent Coalition, a collaboration of employers, academia and community organizations aiming to create new pathways into tech for the county’s underserved population and connect them with programs to learn, upskill and reskill. This year, INIT was honored by the coalition, part of Miami Tech Works, for their contributions to the community and their exceptional tech community engagement.

“Our main focus at INIT is to create community for professionals and alumni from all of our chapters,” Villa-Garcia continued. “It’s all thanks to two things – our unprecedented growth in the Miami Tech ecosystem, and our love for Miami.”

For more information on INIT’s different chapters and programs, or to apply to become a member, visit their website at https://www.weareinit.org/.

To stay connected with news and upcoming events, follow INIT on social media @initofficial, or join their Discord of more than 9,000 members at http://discord.gg/init.

If you’re a student leader looking to launch an INIT chapter at your school, you can email the INIT team at team@weareinit.org.

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Krysten Brenlla