Mentoring for economic transformation

New York employees in New York mentored adult training in software development—helping them build professional-grade apps and launch tech careers.

Last fall, New York colleagues from the Technology, Data and Innovation (TDI) division volunteered with the nonprofit Pursuit to guide a cohort of adult trainees with technical and product mentorship. Pursuit seeks to create generational wealth and economic transformation. They recruit individuals from non-traditional backgrounds and train them in software development. Pursuit also helps its trainees (whom they call “Fellows”) secure their first tech jobs and provides ongoing career development and support after they are hired.

With the belief that everyone should have access to job opportunities and life-changing training, Pursuit taps into talent from communities who have been previously overlooked and underrepresented in the industry. No previous coding experience is required to be a Fellow. Instead, Pursuit looks for individuals who demonstrate grit, passion, and determination. The program is highly competitive and selective; over 1,000 people applied to the most recent cohort.

The 23 Fellows met their mentors at the end of their first year of training, as they worked on their capstone portfolio projects. Working in small teams, Fellows were tasked to identify a problem, design a solution, and code a fully functional application from start to finish over the course of eight weeks.

This was the first time that Deutsche Bank employees volunteered in this capacity and only the second time for Pursuit that portfolio project mentors came from the same company.

This format afforded Fellows the chance to see how a technical team at a large enterprise organization like Deutsche Bank works together to deliver projects. Mentors guided Fellows in refining their app concepts, ensuring clarity and alignment with project goals. They provided technical expertise and practical solutions, helping teams overcome challenges during development. By emphasizing the prioritization of key features, mentors ensured the applications were user-centric and impactful.

The thorough feedback and innovative suggestions empowered Fellows to deliver polished, high-quality projects that met professional standards. One Fellow remarked how walking into Deutsche Bank surrounded them in an environment of excellence, “where collaboration and expertise are woven into everything they do.”

The 20 Deutsche Bank employees mentors for the engagement came from teams across multiple businesses. In their day to day jobs, they work as data scientists, engineers, project managers and business analysts collaborating to deliver software and platforms to ensure the bank’s success.

One employee mentor called the experience

 “the most meaningful volunteering I have done in my life. The lasting impact of this program on the lives of the Fellows, combined with the fact that this actually allowed me to volunteer using my IT professional skills and the high level of engagement from the Fellows, made this special to me.”


At the last mentoring session, Fellows presented their apps to a panel of TDI leaders and received even more expert feedback. Their training complete, the Fellows have now embarked on a formal job search within tech.

CSR Americas has partnered with Pursuit since 2019. Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation was an early funder of the organization, providing grant support as it has refined and scaled its Fellowship training model. More recently, the foundation has funded workshops designed to expose adults from low-income communities to essential artificial intelligence (AI) tools and emerging opportunities.