Aly Tamboura – Project Manager at Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative

For the majority of my incarceration I dreamed about being released and fantasized about the great life I would have in the free world. But as my 14-year sentence wound down, my dreams turned into panic. In reality, I was a middle aged minority with a felony conviction and no job prospects.

This all changed when I was accepted into The Last Mile, the first of its kind computer coding program inside a correctional facility. The program not only gave me a marketable skill but it also gave me confidence. TLM’s curriculum mimics real world software engineering problems. And the classroom projects are crafted in the same agile development strategy used by technology companies. When I started interviewing for jobs, I could speak the lingo and write the code like any seasoned professional. With the knowledge I gained from TLM, I walked out of prison into a six figure salary. Now I am living the dream.”