Victory Village Corp

MISSION STATEMENT

Empowering underserved communities through immersive workforce training that equips and prepares future leaders and professionals of tomorrow.

Established in April 2017, Victory Village Inc is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides immersive training programs and experiences to youth, teens, and families designed to uplift underserved communities, from resource deserts to the victorious. We believe that God calls us to offer all individuals the opportunity to discover and develop their interests, gifts, and talents, regardless of socioeconomic status or geographic location. Our flagship program, CODEXCEL, provides free and discounted college prep and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) + Arts workforce training opportunities and paid apprenticeships to middle and high students who might otherwise not have access to small group, object-based learning outside the perimeters of the classroom. Furthermore, we work with faith-based organizations and schools to provide immersive STEM afterschool and weekend programming for youth and families living in underserved communities throughout Harris County Texas.

Our goal is to assist 100% of our enrolled CODEXCEL student techs in completing the following three goals before graduating from high school:

1. Complete an industry-standard tech or construction/real estate vocational certification.

2. Prepare for college or immediate hire into entry-level STEM and Construction careers.

3. Gain an opportunity to complete an industry apprenticeship or instructor assignment within one of our CODEXCEL courses.

Tori Cole, MBA, PMP, ITIL

• Position: Executive Director of Programming
• Primary responsibilities: 
  • Directs the Programming of Victory Village Corp and the CODEXCEL program
  • Approves and Finalizes the curriculum and annual schedule for the CODEXCEL program
  • Serves as the Lead Community Liaison and Program Champion for the Organization
  • Serves as the Hiring Manager for the CODEXCEL program
  • Submits organizational proposals for grants 

Tori Cole, Founder and Executive Director of Victory Village, grew up in one of the most dangerous communities in Harris County, TX. located on the far eastern boundary of Houston. This area is known as the "Ship Channel district" of the county and is characterized by illegal trades, STEM education and training deserts, and minorities make up 90% of its population. 

Now, as a former tech entrepreneur, corporate executive for an international tech company, and a local youth pastor, Ms. Cole founded Victory Village and the CODEXCEL program to help share that same STEM hope with girls and underrepresented minority students from similar backgrounds as herself by training them for the skilled workforce while encouraging them to graduate from high school with a trade certification or associate’s degree.

Ms. Cole's past community leadership experiences include:

Youth Pastor, Unity Baytown Church

Past Lead Instructor of Houston Chapter, Black Girls Code

Past Pre-College Initiative Chair, National Society of Black Engineers

Past National Publications Chair, National Society of Black Engineers 

Past Regional Telecommunications Chair, National Society of Black Engineers 

CODEXCEL STAFF 

Our CODEXCEL Staff have over 250 years of collective professional success in STEM Careers. Furthermore, the diversity of our board of directors, advisory board, and staff directly reflect the communities that we serve. All of our board members have risen above similar backgrounds as our target students to become successful businessmen and women in our respective careers.

Staff
•Tori Cole –Founder and Executive Director –a full-time volunteer unpaid position
•Cheryl Cole (Retired | UNT Grad | Over 45 years of Logistics Director Exp.) –Communications Director –a volunteer unpaid position
•Ajalon Gibbs – Lead CODEXCEL Instructor and Curriculum Specialist; Former CODEXCEL student –a part time paid position
•Azavan Gibbs –CODEXCEL Instructor, Former CODEXCEL student –a part time paid position

Executive Board –All volunteer, unpaid positions
•Michael Cole (Retired | Over 40 of Technical Instrumentation Experience) –Training Advisor
•Shavon Barrie (B.S. Eng Mgmt./Math, MBA | 15 years of PMO Exp.) -CODEXCEL Curriculum Specialist
•TJ Tijani (B.S. Mech Eng| 10 years of Real Estate Exp.) -CODEXCEL Builders Curriculum Advisor

Advisory Board
•Joel Garza (Retired Veteran | Certified Commercial Drone Pilot) -Consultant, a paid 1099 contract position
•Virginia Richard (UH PhD candidate in Social Work) -Education/Social Work Advisor, an unpaid position
•DajLeon Farr (BGS | Former NFL Player | 10 years of exp) -Marketing Advisor, an unpaid position

Since our inception in 2017, our Victory Village staff members have been in the best position to successfully impacted our students and teachers in the following ways:

Afterschool and Summer Programming (2017 – 2023, with CODEXCEL establishment in 2022)

• 2000+ students from 20+ schools in Harris County have been directly served through our afterschool program

• A former student now serves as our CODEXCEL PREP class instructor, earning a paid apprenticeship position before his high school graduation.
• Tori Cole is Partnering with South Union CDC to virtually training over 30 African girls and Black American teens how to 3D-print masks and mask accessories during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CODEXCEL trains, certifies, and equips teens from underserved communities for post-secondary STEM matriculation, technical apprenticeships, and construction technology careers.

Across the United States of America, high schools are understaffed and under resourced, leaving their students, specifically girls and minorities, unprepared for college entry or entry-level, STEM and construction jobs, which often overlooks our target communities.

Underperforming Schools are leaving students ill-prepared for post-secondary education:

• • Only 1 in 10 (10%) of high school graduates in 2013 earned a certificate or degree from a public 2-yr college in Texas within eight years.[3]
  • One out of five (20%) of high school graduates in 2013 earned a degree from a Texas public university within eight years. [3]
  • Less than half (50%) of Houston-area students enrolled in a CTE program in 2019-20.
  • In 2021 - 2022, Houston-area schools allocate an average of $3.66 per year for each student.[1][2]
  • Only 37% of HISD high schools were designated as college readiness schools.[1]
• Public Schools are becoming Post-Secondary Readiness Deserts for Minority Youth, Girls, and Young Adults: Minority enrollment in Houston-area public schools is 91% of the student body, which is far more than the Texas public school average of 73%, leaving minorities from underserved communities at a tremendous disadvantage for obtaining college and career preparation and training.
• Dropout Rate is at an All-Time High: The number of dropouts jumped 34 percent to 46,319 in the 2020-21 school year that was disrupted by COVID-19, from 34,477 two years prior. 

Sources:

• https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=48525&dataid=362423&FileName=Pace_46017_2021-2022_Facts_Figures_proof_3.pdf
• https://www.houstonisd.org/Page/195359
• https://www.understandinghouston.org/topic/education/post-secondary-education#career_military_readiness
• https://www.publicschoolreview.com/texas/houston

The Gender Gap in STEM

By the time students reach college, women are significantly underrepresented in STEM majors — only 21% of engineering majors are women while they account for only 19% of computer and information science majors.

Key factors perpetuating gender STEM gaps:

• Gender Stereotypes: STEM fields are often viewed as masculine, and teachers and parents often underestimate girls’ math abilities starting as early as preschool.
• Male-Dominated Cultures: Because fewer women study and work in STEM, these fields tend to perpetuate inflexible, exclusionary, male-dominated cultures that are not supportive of or attractive to women and minorities.
• Fewer Role Models: girls have fewer role models to inspire their interest in these fields, seeing limited examples of female scientists and engineers in books, media and popular culture. There are even fewer Black women role models in math and science.
• Math Anxiety: Teachers, who are predominantly women, often have math anxiety they pass onto girls, and they often grade girls harder for the same work, and assume girls need to work harder to achieve the same level as boys.

Source: https://www.aauw.org/resources...

Starting as early as elementary school, CODEXCEL provides a continuum of STEM training, college prep, and STEM success by exposing girls to STEM and continuing that object-oriented STEM training, certification, practicums, and apprenticeships throughout their middle and high school matriculation.

The CODEXCEL program trains girls and minority youth from underserved communities for college, jobs, and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (S.T.E.M.), creating local ecosystems of skilled individuals who uplift their communities, from underserved deserts to victorious villages.

To help fill open workforce positions with trained, skilled workers from underserved communities, the CODEXCEL training program works with a coalition of corporations, understaffed school districts, state workforce agencies, truancy courts, faith-based organizations, and other local and national non-profits to help underserved middle and high school girls and underrepresented minority youth earn industry-standard certifications while they are completing their high school education or G.E.D. Our goal is to assist 100% of our enrolled student techs in completing the following three goals before graduating from high school:

1. Earn an industry-standard tech certification, license, or construction/real estate vocational certification.

2. Prepare for college or immediate hire into entry-level STEM and Construction careers.

3. Gain an opportunity to complete a paid industry apprenticeship or instructor assignment within one of our CODEXCEL course.

NA

In lieu of COVID19, Victory Village understands that relative national research results on target education systems and models are currently being fully developed and formalized. Therefore, in 2020, we decided to embark upon a two-year foundational research study to determine the problems faced by girls and minority students from underserved communities in Harris County Texas, the fastest growing and most diverse county in the United States.

Here is what we discovered: 

Underperforming Schools are leaving students ill-prepared for post-secondary education:

• • Only 1 in 10 (10%) of high school graduates in 2013 earned a certificate or degree from a public 2-yr college in Texas within eight years.[3]
  • One out of five (20%) of high school graduates in 2013 earned a degree from a Texas public university within eight years. [3]
  • Less than half (50%) of Houston-area students enrolled in a CTE program in 2019-20.
  • In 2021 - 2022, Houston-area schools allocate an average of $3.66 per year for each student.[1][2]
  • Only 37% of HISD high schools were designated as college readiness schools.[1]

Public Schools are becoming Post-Secondary Readiness Deserts for Minority Youth, Girls, and Young Adults: Minority enrollment in Houston-area public schools is 91% of the student body, which is far more than the Texas public school average of 73%, leaving minorities from underserved communities at a tremendous disadvantage for obtaining college and career preparation and training.

Dropout Rate is at an All-Time High: The number of dropouts jumped 34 percent to 46,319 in the 2020-21 school year that was disrupted by COVID-19, from 34,477 two years prior. 

Sources:

• https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=48525&dataid=362423&FileName=Pace_46017_2021-2022_Facts_Figures_proof_3.pdf
• https://www.houstonisd.org/Page/195359
• https://www.understandinghouston.org/topic/education/post-secondary-education#career_military_readiness
• https://www.publicschoolreview.com/texas/houston

The Gender Gap in STEM

By the time students reach college, women are significantly underrepresented in STEM majors — only 21% of engineering majors are women while they account for only 19% of computer and information science majors.

Key factors perpetuating gender STEM gaps:

• Gender Stereotypes: STEM fields are often viewed as masculine, and teachers and parents often underestimate girls’ math abilities starting as early as preschool.
• Male-Dominated Cultures: Because fewer women study and work in STEM, these fields tend to perpetuate inflexible, exclusionary, male-dominated cultures that are not supportive of or attractive to women and minorities.
• Fewer Role Models: girls have fewer role models to inspire their interest in these fields, seeing limited examples of female scientists and engineers in books, media and popular culture. There are even fewer Black women role models in math and science.
• Math Anxiety: Teachers, who are predominantly women, often have math anxiety they pass onto girls, and they often grade girls harder for the same work, and assume girls need to work harder to achieve the same level as boys.

Source: https://www.aauw.org/resources...

Based upon the conclusions of our research, we decided to purpose our CODEXCEL curriculum to directly match industry-standard skill shortages while working with a coalition of corporations (like Dow, Walmart, Toyota, and Best Buy), understaffed schools, state workforce agencies, truancy courts, faith-based organizations, and non-profits to help our underserved middle and high school students earn these industry-standard certifications. These certifications include but are not limited to FAA Part 107 Drone Pilot Licensing, Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) Certifications, and American Concrete Institute (ACI) Certifications.

CODEXCEL workforce trainings, internships, and apprenticeships will support the following industries:

• NAICS CODE 481219 - Other Nonscheduled Air Transportation
• NAICS CODE 541922 - Photographers Specializing in Aerial Photography
• NAICS CODE 541511 - Custom Computer Programming Services
• NAICS CODE 518210 - Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services
• NAICS CODE 541330 - Engineering Services
• NAICS CODE 23          - Construction
• NAICS Code: 541380 - Testing Laboratories

CODEXCEL training program, apprenticeships, and internships will support the following Middle Skill STEM Occupations - identified on the Texas Workforce Investment Council website as the leading occupations of the future for Gulf Coast Texas.

(Source: https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/organization/twic/STEM_Summary.pdf)

11-3021 Computer and Information Systems Manager

11-9021 Construction Managers

13-1051 Cost Estimators

15-0000 Computer and Mathematical Occupations

15-1132 Software Developers, Applications

15-1133 Software Developers, Systems Software

15-1134 Web Developers

15-1141 Database Administrators

Currently, Victory Village is looking for researchers and system architects to assist us with organizing a strategic plan to grow and scale our CODEXCEL model. The need is evident by the number of school districts and corporations that are excited to partner with us to equip students with STEM skills of the future. We NEED institutional analysis and support

1. What is the best system, processes, and strategy to implement to achieve our outlined growth and scale objectives our CODEXCEL programming?
2. What is the best scalable model for the CODEXCEL program?
3. What are the best technologies to use for scaling the CODEXCEL program?

The Victory Village Corp is looking for the following outputs:

1. A CODEXCEL Teacher's guide that outlines the best practices that teachers and staff can implement to effectively train and develop girls and minority students to become successful STEM professionals.
2. A CODEXCEL curriculum plan and schedule that can easily be reproduced and scaled across multiple locations with local teachers and volunteers.
3. A Strategic Growth Plan that outlines the best model for scaling the CODEXCEL program into nationwide and international satellite campuses.

The Victory Village Corp is looking for the following outputs:

1. A CODEXCEL Teacher's guide that outlines the best practices that teachers and staff can implement to effectively train and develop girls and minority students to become successful STEM professionals.
   1. We will use this teacher's guide to effectively train and develop teachers and school staff to train their students in STEM.
2. A CODEXCEL curriculum plan and schedule that can easily be reproduced and scaled across multiple locations with local teachers and volunteers.
   1. We will use this curriculum plan to effectively train and develop our students for STEM success.
3. A Strategic Growth Plan that outlines the best model for scaling the CODEXCEL program into nationwide and international satellite campuses.
   1. We will use this growth plan to scale our CODEXCEL program into satellite campuses, both nationwide and internationally.

THE CODEXCEL PROGRAM ACTIVITIES

The VICTORY VILLAGE CODEXCEL training programming consist of the following activities, outputs, short-term and long-term outcomes:

CODEXCEL PREP Training Cohort – A year-long computer science development program for middle and high school students.

Outputs: 

• Middle and High School Students learn the basic in computer software and engineering.

Short-term (1-year) Outcome:

• Train and certifying 100 middle and high school students
• Graduate over 10 students and provide them an opportunity for a paid apprenticeship or instructor position

Long-term (5-year) Outcome:

• Train and certifying 10,000 middle and high school students
• Graduate over 1,000 students and provide them an opportunity for a paid apprenticeship or instructor position

CODEXCEL Plus Training Track - A year-long advanced computer science certification and apprenticeship program for high school students.

Outputs: 

• High School Students learn and earn industry certifications in advanced computer science, engineering, and project management.

Short-term (1-year) Outcome:

• Train and certify 100 middle and high school girls in technical skills outlined by top STEM corporations and industry

Long-term (5-year) Outcome:

• Train and certify 10,000 middle and high school students
• Graduate over 1,000 students and provide them an opportunity for a paid apprenticeship or instructor position

CODEXCEL Builders Training Track – A year-long construction and energy industry inspection development program for high school students.

Outputs: 

• High School Students learn and earn industry certifications in construction technology and project management.

Short-term (1-year) Outcome:

• Train and certify 100 middle and high school girls in construction and real estate vocational skills outlined by top industry players

Long-term (5-year) Outcome:

• Train and certifying 10,000 middle and high school girls
• Graduate over 1,000 students and provide them an opportunity for a paid apprenticeship or instructor position

CODEXCEL Youth Summer Camps and STEM Afterschool Days – Host camps and afterschool classes for youth and teens to learn entrepreneurship principles, software/hardware programming, and technology product design through instructor-led classes and guided projects.

Outputs: 

• Elementary through High School students learn STEM concepts through project participation and object oriented learning in inclusive environments

Short-term (1-year) Outcome:

• Bring our CODEXCEL afterschool and weekend programming to 1000+ students (year to date 250+ students have been)

Long-term (5-year) Outcome:

• Instruct over 20,000 students in CODEXCEL afterschool classrooms

iTECH Training Seminars - Host Computer Training, STEM Teacher Seminars, Financial Literacy, and Small Business Training classes for youth, parents, and families with educational partners.

Output: 

• Elementary through High School STEM teachers learn how to train and educate students in STEM while encouraging equity in the classroom and STEM careers.

Short-term (1-year) Outcome:

• Bring our CODEXCEL afterschool and weekend programming to 100+ teachers

Long-term (5-year) Outcome:

• Teachers Instruct over 20,000 students (including at least 10,000 girls) in CODEXCEL afterschool classrooms

Scaling the CODEXCEL Program to communities nationwide and internationally

Output:

• Through Strategic Virtual Classroom Technology, State Agency Partnerships, and VR/AR implementation, we are creating CODEXCEL satellite campuses.

Short-term (1-year) Outcome:

• Reach over 1,000 students through virtual classrooms.

Long-term (5-year) Outcome:

• Open state and international satellite chapters dedicated to certify 100,000 students per year