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It was envisioned as a bridge to connect Historically Black Colleges and Universities with the Big Tech enclave of Silicon Valley. When Google executives announced Howard West in 2017, it was advertised as a collaboration with Howard University to recruit Black computer science majors from the Washington, D.C., campus. The initiative quickly expanded to include other HBCUs across the nation. The plan was to steep the students in a rigorous training regimen at the Googleplex, the company’s corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California. The aim was to cultivate a strong pool of qualifi...

Loading the player... Some Black college students from Google’s 2017 Howard West program have criticized the company for broken promises, culture clashes, and disorganization, according to The students shared that they experienced microaggressions on Google’s campus including employees staring and frequently checking their badges. Others were asked if they belonged there and one student was mistaken as a member of the kitchen staff. “It was like nobody had seen an African American person before,” said Saraah Cooper, a 2018-19 participant. Lauren Clayton, the only Black woman in 2...

"I had nothing but positive things to say during that time, but that was before the promises were broken." She says a Howard West program leader promised to match an offer from Apple, which would pay for her senior year, but she found herself instead with unpaid bills and a sour experience. While she said she enjoyed the program in general, she and other participants often felt that Google's ambitions for the program took precedent over the needs of participants. The program is one of many initiatives the tech industry has undertaken to improve diversity in its workforce. Today, only 3.7% of ...