Tony Veland is an Omaha native whose sports highlights include back-to-back 1994-1995 national championships with the Nebraska Cornhuskers. In addition to being on the championship team, Veland also was co-captain of the 1995 team, helping to lead the Huskers to victory. After college, he went on to become a 1997 Super Bowl champion with the Denver Broncos.
Veland was fortunate to be coached by Tom Osborne, who he calls the epitome of a leader.
“Osborne cared more about the man than he did the player, and it showed in his everyday actions,” said Veland.
Osborne had a huge influence on Veland’s life, as he always stressed character and integrity, and leading with a servant’s heart.
Sports have always been a passion of his because of the competition, but Veland has appreciated it more over the years because of the lessons learned, and the platform it provided: an attentive ear, which helps him speak into the lives of others.
“I have always been one to help others if I was able. Even as a kid, it just made sense to help those in need,” said Veland. “That feeling never faded. Once my football career was over, I made it a point to give back in some way.”
Even when it comes to his employment, Veland realized he wouldn’t be satisfied with what he was doing unless he was serving an important need for others. As an advisor for a number of years, he helped individuals become better stewards of their finances. As a coach, he helped kids become better athletes.
But more importantly, he says, he taught life lessons and instilled traits and habits that would lead to success in the future. Now, as Director of Business Development at Omaha not-for-profit AIM Institute, he helps provide resources to affect change in the community where it is needed most.
Veland with Tom Osborne.Due to the number of ways AIM helps in the community, working at the nonprofit gives Veland the chance to lead a team that is focused on changing lives.
“I’m proud to be part of an organization where everything we do has a direct impact on where we live,” said Veland. “AIM is known for Careerlink. It’s a great online hub that is used to connect job seekers to employers, as well as to provide advertising for the amazing companies in our region.”
“What isn’t widely known is the fact that AIM provides career development and education programs designed to engage and empower those in tech,” said Veland. “This helps fortify the talent we have in Omaha, which, in turn, makes our employers and economy stronger.”
Lastly, AIM Institute helps to provide free tech education programs to kids age seven to 17. STEM, coding, web design, robotics and more are taught at the AIM Brain Exchange to youth who are under-resourced and under-served.
“Every action of my team supports this, and it makes working here very fulfilling. We are getting youth on a path that will change the trajectory of their lives,” Veland said.
“We are excited to have Tony Veland as Director of Business Development at AIM Institute,” said AIM President and CEO Dr. Kandace Miller. “Tony’s passion and dedication for helping others are an asset to our growing not-for-profit and our mission to grow, connect and inspire the tech talent pipeline across the Silicon Prairie.”
Veland says it is great being in a field that is ever-changing and always interesting.
“I have always enjoyed being on good teams, and I’ve always had high expectations for what we would accomplish. That remains the same here,” said Veland.
OMAHA — A year ago, if you would have asked a group of 6th graders at Liberty Elementary School if they ever thought they could build a computer, they might have given you some strange looks.
Today, they would give you instructions.
“You screw everything in, wire it in, put the buttons in,” 12-year-old Da’Shawn explains.
“When you start, you have to get the manual, and when you start to put it together, you can see how cool and how amazing it is to just take the different pieces and put them together,” says Octavio, also a 12-year-old Liberty student.
Da’Shawn, Octavio and their classmates have been learning about putting computers together at the AIM Brain Exchange with Piper Computer Kits. The kits come with blueprints and buttons, switches and circuitry, and it’s up the kids to bring it all together.
The kits are just one of several activities at the Brain Exchange that are geared toward getting kids excited about tech.
“Every time we come, they are just so excited to see what new things that they have planned for us,” says Liberty 6th grade teacher Jenni Ortman. “If we ever have to miss, they are super devastated that they can’t go to Brain Exchange for whatever reason.”
Sylvia, 11, likes working with Dash and Dot robots, which are programmable robots kids control through Android and iOS apps. She has also been learning how to work with video in iMovie.
She says she’s excited about each new activity she takes part in.
“I really like all of them. They involve a lot of teamwork, a lot of construction and steps, and the staff are really helpful,” says Sylvia.
Sylvia says she looks forward to learning more about technology and says when she gets older, she would like to study robotics.
“It’s really fun and exciting,” says Sylvia. “If someone would have told me I’d be doing this, I would be like, I would never be able to do this.”
(Photo: Sylvia, Da’Shawn, Juan.)
Octavio also says he wants to pursue a career in technology, possibly as a game designer. In the meantime, he likes the hands-on activities he gets to try.
“I love to build and use technology. Like remote control cars, you can change how fast they are going,” says Octavio.
Ortman says it’s been remarkable to see the boost in students’ confidence.
“Sometimes the students are intimidated by trying new things, especially involving technology,” says Ortman. ‘This has really increased their confidence, it’s increased their problem-solving skills. They work really well as a team when they are here.”
Da’Shawn agrees that some of the activities, like the computer-building kits, seemed tough at the beginning.
“It was hard at first because I didn’t understand it, but as we got into it and we built the outside structure, it got easier, because I started understanding more,” says Da’Shawn.
(Photo: Octavio)
As the school year winds down, the students wrote thank-you notes to the Brain Exchange staff.
“Having a chance like this is a miracle, going to Brain Exchange is amazing,” wrote 12-year-old Juan. “I appreciate what Brain Exchange has done for me. I’ve been enjoying more technology, and it gave me more confidence with different kinds of technology.”
Ortman says she has seen the students grow from their experiences at the Brain Exchange.
“I think this an exciting opportunity. I know Liberty feels very blessed to have this partnership with AIM, and I think the knowledge we’re received here has been invaluable, both the teachers and the students,” says Ortman. “I think the kids are successful because they know everyone is here to teach them and to help them. They have really flourished.”
(Photo: Rosharra Owens at Iowa Western Community College, May 9, 2018.)
COUNCIL BLUFFS – For Rosharra Owens, learning to build websites was part of rebuilding her life after a series of unfortunate events left her living in a homeless shelter, and feeling stuck.
“It was crazy. I don’t know how I’ve been able to do it, but I’ve been able to do it,” she says.
Rosharra was living at Omaha’s Open Door Mission when she saw fliers for the Interface Web School/Highlander Seventy Five North Code Camp.
“I didn’t think I was ever going to get in school. I didn’t think there was any hope,” she said.
But she started making phone calls, and ended up at Heartland Workforce Solutions, where they helped her apply for the course and arrange financial aid.
“They were excellent at helping get the paperwork pushed though,” she recalls.
Once the class got underway, Rosharra found a small class size, and a lot of individual attention from the instructor.
“She went through things that I didn’t understand, but I could ask her, and we could go over it, especially since it was the three of us,” she recalls.
(Rosharra Owens in class with instructor Lana Yager.)
Rosharra says she loved learning to build the look and feel of a website.
“I love the whole idea of designing, I was really thrilled about that, and since it was a small class, it was a lot of fun,” she says.
Rosharra says the class could definitely be challenging at times.
“Anything you don’t really know can be a challenge, especially in IT. There’s a lot of coding, a lot of things to remember, you definitely need to practice, to look over the stuff,” she says. “It takes time and you make mistakes, but slowly I was getting it, getting the hang of it.”
Rosharra says the great thing about the course was that it involved real-world examples of web-building exercises.
“That’s the main thing I loved about the class, it was all majority hands-on. We did maybe a half-hour lecture, but the rest of the class, we worked on building a website, buttons, containers, it was nice,” she says.
‘It’s really how I got my start.’
As Rosharra was nearing the completion of the 10-week course, she realized she wanted to continue her education. She applied to and enrolled in Iowa Western Community College, where she just completed 12 credit hours.
One of her courses was Introduction to Web Design, and she says her experience at Interface/Highlander was a big help.
She now hopes to earn an Associates Degree in Media Production, and eventually pursue a career in filmmaking.
Rosharra credits the Interface/Highlander course with jump starting her education, and giving her the confidence to succeed.
“It was a great opportunity. Starting there is what got me here. I wanna do so much more. It’s really how I got my start,” she says.
For anyone who is thinking about going to back to school or changing careers, Rosharra says to stay focused, and have faith.
“Don’t look at what everyone else is doing because that can be very frustrating, when you see everyone else picking the pace up, it can really bring down your self esteem. You just sort of have to tune out what everyone else is doing and just keep your focus on what’s in front of you,” she says.
For more information on the Interface/75 North Highlander program, click here.
(Photo: Seventy-Five North students at the AIM Brain Exchange, July 26,2017.)
OMAHA — Organizations around the country and here in the Midwest struggle with complicated questions around how to reach and serve disconnected youth with pathways into the workforce.
But there are numerous efforts underway right here in Omaha to connect youth with educational and employment opportunities. Making those connections was the focus of a recent podcast where speakers outlined their approaches — among them, Shonna Dorsey, AIM’s Vice President of Business Development and Tech Talent.
Dorsey was one of three speakers on the “Youth Worker Power Training” podcast presented by Workforce 180. She told listeners from around the country about community-wide youth-in-tech initiatives here Omaha, and the opportunities being created here for young people outside traditional paths.
“There are high paying jobs you can get in tech that don’t require a college degree,” said Dorsey. “I never dissuade people from pursuing advanced degrees, but when you have kids like disconnected youth who are really anxious to be doing something interesting, and something that is high-paying and valuable to them, a career in tech is a space where they can get started.”
Dorsey told listeners about community-wide efforts to bridge the gap between the tech workforce and underserved communities, especially young people.
“We definitely need to make sure youth feel connected to opportunities in this community,” she said.
One organization working toward those goals is the Heartland Workforce Solutions Youth Council, which coordinates efforts among youth-centered agencies, area training providers, employers and other agencies that provide supportive services.
“We all come together to discuss ways in which we can provide a more connected and easy-to-navigate process for people who come into our system,” Dorsey explained.
Dorsey also told listeners about AIM Brain Exchange North, an accelerated web development training program based in areas of Omaha with the lowest average household incomes, where unemployment rates soar above the city average.
For example, in Omaha’s 68110 zipcode, the unemployment rate is 17.6 percent; in 68111, the rate is 12.7 percent, according to the Nebraska Department of Labor. The average unemployment rate for the Omaha metropolitan area is 3.1 percent.
Brain Exchange North typically accepts 10 to 15 students and takes them through a seven-week program that meets daily.
“During that seven weeks, they are meeting people from the community, employers who are interested in diversity and inclusion and who want to let these kids know that there are opportunities for them,” said Dorsey.
At the end of the program, Dorsey says there are opportunities for participants to be interviewed for internships.
“They are able to develop skills at a foundational level over the summer, and then be connected to an employer who has an open internship so that they can continue to build on their skillset,” said Dorsey.
One of the goals is to make tech training opportunities more readily accessible.
“We know for sure that having those supportive services and making it easy for people to access them is critical,” said Dorsey. “We’re looking at our process and saying, is it easy for someone to come into this and know what to do next and navigate it, and get the development plans together that they need to be successful? That’s what we’re working on right now. It is an evolving process.”
The hope is to build a thriving, growing community by connecting young people with opportunities they may not have otherwise had.
“We have a talent retention issue, so we are thinking that the younger we start, the more likely it is that we can keep them here,” said Dorsey, “We want them to feel supported in this community, no matter which zipcode they live in.”
For more information about Brain Exchange North, contact Shonna Dorsey at sdorsey@nullaiminstitute.org.
Ask-a-Dev is a meetup where developers can come meet one-on-one with more experienced programmers.
The Omaha meetup will take place Sunday, May 6, at Urban Abbey in downtown Omaha.
Ask-a-Dev has meetups across the country and around the world — but until now, not in Omaha.
Organizer Christian Burk says he came across the idea in a blog post.
“I was immediately sure this was something that Omaha needed to do, too,” he says.
The format of the meetup is open-ended: programmers meeting and talking with other programmers.
“I’ve been there, just starting out on a project or programming language and not sure what to do next, what tutorial was right, what repo to fork,” said Burk. “In fact, I’m in that same headspace regularly, needing answers from people who have encountered the same thing I have.”
The meetup is free, and open to anyone seeking clarity in their coding projects.
“I would expect participants to range from relative tech novices to a junior or even mid-level programmer trying something out for the first time and looking for some guidance, direction or just reassurance that they are not crazy,” said Burk. “The key is that it is just easier and more fun to work through problems with someone.”
Burk says he hopes the meetup is a positive experience for both the mentors and the mentees.
“I believe that the mentees will come away with renewed excitement and confidence about their own projects,” said Burk. “I want them to feel more connected to the larger community, too. If they’re not programmers themselves though, the mentees may also come away with contacts made for further help if they need it.”
The Omaha meetup’s mentors include Ben Stevinson, Nick Stankus, Kikki Beltz, Naomi See and Kent Smotherman — all representing a wide range of programming and development specialties.
“The bench is deep with web developer talent and knowledge across the stack — back-end, front-end, and data — and across languages like JavaScript, Java, Ruby, Python, SQL, and PHP,” said Burk. “There is Drupal and WordPress talent in the group. Data visualization, microservices, CI/CD, MVC, Django, and Node are also represented.”
The first Omaha meetup will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. Another is planned for June 10.
For more information: http://www.skyriter.com/2018/03/30/ask-a-dev-omaha-starts-may-6/
RSVP for the Omaha meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Ask-A-Dev/events/249243709/
