By: Emma Neiman, Program Manager – Internships and Alums & Jane Park – Program Coordinator
One of our goals is to provide alums and members of our community with information that they care about. We’ve heard a lot of interest in the admissions goals that we have, where they came from, and how they compare to our current cohorts. As one of our Ada SECRETS is transparency, we’re excited to share this information here!
Who is at Ada? Tell me more about Cohort 13!
Cohort 13 is now almost one month into their classroom experience! To learn more about what their classroom experience is like, you can check out this blog post by Bethany Lindsey, our Director of Education. Below is the class profile of this cohort – keep reading to see how these numbers compare to our goals.
What are our admissions goals?
During the strategic planning process in 2019, Ada identified three target audiences that we want to strategically focus on for admissions:
- Low income people
- Underrepresented minorities*
- LGBTQIA people
Our goal is to serve two to four times the represented percentages in Washington State of each of these groups. We hope to reach our full strategic plan goals in two to three years, and have set incrementally higher goals for each cohort until Cohort 18 (starting in August 2022) to keep us accountable. The graph below shows the full strategic plan goals as well as the goals for our current cohort, C13.
*Underrepresented minorities include Black or African American, Latinx/Hispanic, American Indian or Alaskan Native, South Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
How are we doing compared to these goals?
The short answer is: we’re doing pretty well compared to our goals. You can see in the chart below our long-term strategic planning goal, as well as our goal for C13 and the actual numbers in this cohort.
What are we doing next?
We have a lot of things in the pipeline at Ada that we are really excited about, including new ways to specifically support our target audiences. This includes in-person information sessions for applicants and two pre-Ada workshops specifically for underrepresented minorities. We also brought in a representative from Public Health to do in-person benefits enrollment during Cohort 13 orientation, for programs including Washington Apple Health, ORCA Lift, and EBT.
As we look to grow our support systems around these students, we would love any first hand advice on how we can ensure an equitable experience inside the Ada classroom and beyond. Please feel free to reach out to Emma (emma@adadevelopersacademy.org) if you want to discuss this. And keep an eye out on our newsletter for updates!