#CTP10 Anniversary with Ted Brown

Iyeshia Redrick: Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. I have five questions about your overall experience with CTP. Can you tell us about yourself?

Ted Brown: Oh no! Let’s see, I used to have black hair, and now I have white hair. What else do you want to know?

Iyeshia Redrick: Haha, okay! Regarding your tech journey, what made you think of CTP?

Ted Brown: I have always been interested in working with people outside CUNY. I was a member of the New York Tech Alliance (also known as New York Tech Meetup). And we were pretty active. One day, a few people contacted me and said they wanted me to start a software institute at CUNY. I was told this in 1998.? The university liked the idea, and it passed right through; the general idea of how CUNY works with industry is either through education or research partnerships to get the CUNY name out there. A few years later, I considered having interns work in an incubator. The city council liked and supported the idea, which became the CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development (CISDD). CUNY Tech Prep (CTP) is the main project that CISDD now houses. We started with very little funding. The first CTP Program Manager, Jessica Hills, had even broader ideas than I did. My goal was to get students into companies and have them work together to build projects to put on their resumes. She created all the other components of CTP, like hiring career coaches to look at resumes and complete practice interviews with students;? it became a much larger enterprise. Every year since, CTP has grown.?

Iyeshia Redrick: Nice. What was your biggest lesson with CTP and our last nine cohorts?

Ted Brown: How to use an eraser. I'm just kidding. No, the biggest lesson I learned is that we are needed in the city and are an important component of CUNY. The New York City Tech Talent Pipeline, which funds CUNY Tech Prep, has created other programs directly on college campuses called CUNY 2X. This is a different model based on some of CTP’s best practices.

Iyeshia Redrick: My second to last question, Ted, is why does CTP matter?

Ted Brown: It matters in several ways, but its broad function is to get students jobs. To do that, you must teach them modern technologies and skills that companies are looking to hire for. Get their resumes in order. We want to boost the reputation of CUNY as a source of tech talent in NYC. CUNY is an integral part of the city, and we want students to have a fair shot at getting hired locally. Many first-generation students, talented students, are in CUNY. We want to raise the bar and give them the resources to start their careers.

Iyeshia Redrick: My last question, Ted, is: What is your biggest hope for the next ten cohorts of CTP?

Ted Brown: That they get me a genie with three wishes. Just kidding again! Sometimes, things can feel static - they're not static; change happens in the city, the state, and the country all the time. With that said, I hope CUNY Tech Prep continues evolving and ensuring our students are ready for the new tech world.