Who We Are
Learn more about Classrooms to Corporations and what we're doing for Northeast Ohio!

Our Vision

Classrooms to Corporations (C2C) provides students with technology skills and training to prepare them for technology careers. C2C empowers and inspires students who might not otherwise consider a career in the field of technology. Through enriching our future local workforce, C2C helps create a talented pipeline of candidates for local corporations.

The Longer Explanation

Classrooms to Corporations teaches advanced computer skills to largely minority high school students in economically disadvantaged Cleveland neighborhoods. This digital workforce development initiative can qualify them for various Microsoft Technology Associate Certifications leading to immediate well-paying careers as computer technicians or entrepreneurs. Incorporated in October 2012 by Joseph Tarasco, CEO of Optio, Ltd., a technology consulting practice, C2C first worked with large local corporations that:

• Need to recycle older IT equipment and keep it out of the landfill (I would reverse the order, since education is our focus)
• Want to avoid incurring significant disposal costs ... and
• Attract qualified young workers for the thousands of unfilled IT jobs in Northeast Ohio.

This hardware, donated to C2C by Moen, Parker-Hannifin, Verizon, Timken and other leading corporations is:

• Refurbished by the students
• Used for teaching, repurposed and/or responsibly recycled
• Finally sold at modest prices to schools that could not otherwise afford such high-end equipment.

A three-year instructional pilot program was then started at a Cleveland high school where the freshman class is 69% African American. Now with proof of concept, it has operated successfully since then with enthusiastic student participation.

Besides one-on-one professional instruction and mentoring, students are positioned for internships and jobs―the first step in what area businesses need most: a pipeline of young IT professionals entering the workforce.

Initial operations were largely self-funded by the founder and board members, although the Leonard Gelfand STEM Center at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic provided important programmatic support. In Year Two of pilot operations, The Generation Foundation made a $50,000 challenge grant, followed by roughly the same amount in foundation, corporate and individual contributions.

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