INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana—Until recently, Lanyia Brooks worked as a custodian in a data center, where she spent her days maintaining the facility while watching tech professionals build the infrastructure around her.

Brooks said that perspective changed completely when a data center technician noticed her work ethic and remarked that she "worked too hard to be just working as a custodian," and sent her a link to a specialized career training program. Despite waiting two anxious months to hear back, Brooks was accepted, conquering her fears to take her very first airplane flight to Indianapolis for the opportunity.

One week into the intensive program, Brooks says she is thriving in a high-energy environment alongside a deeply positive and ambitious cohort of classmates. "My immediate goal is to master my training and learning the ins and outs of physical servers and networking -- with long-term plans to transition into an advanced technician role within a year," she said.

Backed by supportive instructors and employer-provided accommodations, Brooks said, "This opportunity is my direct path to achieving the American dream."

Ethan Blake didn't have to fly to get here, but he said that he felt just as stuck working in retail sales with little opportunity to move up. "I felt a growing desire to move beyond customer service and explore my true interest in technology," he said.

Despite the 26-year-old's efforts to break into the field, Blake said he hit a discouraging wall when searching for local employment and faced the daunting reality that his only visible career paths required relocating across the country to tech hubs such as California.

"This workplace training program provided the critical local bridge I needed and bypassed the need to relocate and unlocked a clear career in the industry that will drive the future of this country," Blake told the Washington Examiner.

Born in Haiti and raised in Florida, 31-year-old Anne Lubin found her true sense of place in Indiana, where she spent nearly a year immersed in an intensive cybersecurity and information assurance........

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