History

Colorado Futuretek was organized in August 2010, and incorporated as a Colorado non-profit corporation on September 24, 2010.  With the helpful advice and guidance of Mr. James T. Holmes, we successfully achieved United States Internal Revenue Service 501(c)(3) tax exempt status on April 19, 2011.  Colorado Futuretek was formed by John Henson and Ron Fontenot Sr., two retired engineers who have spent many years working with young people in volunteer technical training after-school programs. Since that time, we have recruited additional experienced engineering professionals as program instructors, while recruiting business and community leaders to our Board of Directors and Advisory Board. Five of our instructors have completed Cisco Certified Instructor Training for CCNA Discovery: Networking for Home and Small Businesses. In December 2012, Colorado Futuretek became officially affiliated with the Cisco Networking Academy.

Our mission is to provide enrichment training and resources to help African American and other underrepresented minority high school students obtain marketable skills in the IT and Computer industries. In this regard, we have established a set of successful, ongoing programs that we believe are practical and positive ways to help underrepresented minority students become productive citizens who will help fill the widely recognized need for technically trained professionals over the next decade. We collaborate with the public schools, charter schools, private schools, home schools, and churches to recruit students. Our programs are offered tuition-free to the students. We partner with existing schools, churches, and community organizations to provide facilities for our programs, and we plan to eventually establish our own technical training center in Denver. We also work to secure internships for students who excel in our programs.