George Nunez has made it his mission to present again to his Bronx group, one which has had its share of challenges. The best way he sees it, there’s untapped potential and he desires to be the one who helps open doorways utilizing expertise to develop workforce alternatives.
Because the founding father of Bronx Tech Hub, a brand new initiative targeted on creating job alternatives and making the borough a tech hub, the tech entrepreneur used Bronx Tech Week, a collection of occasions that began September 9, to attach Bronx residents of all ages with alternatives in tech and methods to develop their companies.
“It’s not simply workforce growth, it’s not simply getting individuals a job,” mentioned Nunez. “It’s a life-style. We’re additionally speaking about creating generational wealth for them and their households.”
Nunez was raised within the South Bronx in NYCHA housing—together with his mom, brother, and sister—an atmosphere that didn’t encourage educational success or the pursuit of a optimistic future.
“It was tough getting uncovered to gang violence, medication, seeing buddies take a flip, and…a complete bunch of negativity, whether or not it was buddies who had been dying or getting incarcerated,” Nunez mentioned.
He says that with publicity to gang violence early in life, and even being shot within the leg at 14, he realizes how lucky he was to search out tech as a profession path.
Having attended The Eagle Academy for Younger Males in The Bronx, the place he was college president, and a member of the talk crew and Moot Court docket, Nunez says he initially anticipated moving into regulation, however his tech journey started due to the steering of mentors he gained in class who labored in finance on Wall Road.
It was additionally his older brother who inspired him to get into finance and funding banking. Nunez would go to Binghamton College, the place he says studying about enterprise was a superb basis and the place he realized that tech was his calling.
“It was the shining mild for me once I noticed that tech was going to be the longer term,” Nunez mentioned. He started his profession in funding banking on Wall Road earlier than transitioning into consulting and product administration for tech corporations.
Nunez says he realized many of the exercise was in Manhattan and Brooklyn and that exterior of The Data Home, a tech coaching college, The Bronx had been a “tech desert.”
“There’s a lot creativity there. There’s a lot potential there. There’s a lot alternative. Individuals from The Bronx simply need and wish an opportunity,” Nunez mentioned, highlighting the borough because the birthplace of hip hop, a hub of wealthy cultures, and a set of various demographics.
“However whenever you hear about The Bronx, it’s all negativity and that’s the narrative that I’m trying to change, as a result of I’ve met so many artistic people who find themselves doing nice issues,” he continued.
In 2023, he launched the primary Bronx Tech Week, which led to his creation of the Bronx Tech Hub 501 (c) (3), with the mission of making a tech ecosystem targeted on workforce growth, training, entrepreneurial entry, and getting Bronx residents to construct out their tech startups to create jobs for individuals within the borough, elevating the native economic system.
Bronx Tech Hub has a number of new initiatives and occasions on the horizon, together with a local weather tech fellowship with the Bronx Financial Growth Company for Bronx CUNY college students starting in October, the place they’re positioned with tech startups. Additionally they supply an AI fellowship to information college students to both matriculate again into college, pursue software program engineering, or attend an AI bootcamp. The following main occasion they’re internet hosting is the tech job truthful on October fifteenth at Fordham.
This system serves all ages, from kids studying about STEM to varsity college students, working professionals searching for jobs, and seniors being given digital expertise coaching. A few of the excessive colleges they’re working with embody Eagle Academy, Bronx Academy for Software program Engineering, Comp Sci Excessive, and Horace Mann Faculty, in addition to schools Lehman Faculty, Hostos Group Faculty, Fordham College, Bronx Group Faculty, and Manhattan Faculty, amongst others. Additionally they join with seniors by the YMCA.
Nunez says that the various tales of Bronxites he meets and works with who share how these alternatives modified their lives are what he’s most happy with, together with one gentleman he spoke to who was uninterested in his outdated job and got here to Nunez to find out about tech, who’s now in a knowledge fellowship.
“That’s probably the most rewarding feeling, for someone to come back up and say, ‘Hey George, you modified my life, due to you, now I’m actually dwelling the function and the life I need to dwell,’” Nunez mentioned.
Nunez, who works with three different board members within the group, says they’re now trying to safe a bodily house and ultimately scale to different boroughs, earlier than going nationwide, after which international. The Black-owned Sankofa Huas has been one in every of their important venues for occasions. Nunez says funding help and continued branding will likely be key going ahead.
“All I can do is prepare. All I can do is present alternatives, and all I can do is unfold the phrase,” Nunez mentioned.
The Bronx Tech Hub calendar of occasions will be discovered at bronxtechhub.org.
