Name: Talent in every ZIP code: Congressman wants to tap HBCUs for tech workers
Uploaded: 2025-11-11T21:11:19+00:00
Duration: 2 min 26 s
Description: North Carolina Central University and other HBCUs are training graduates for jobs in tech and AI but need help with networking to break into a field that often lacks in diversity, the U.S. Congressman for Silicon Valley said in a Durham stop.

North Carolina Central University and other HBCUs are training graduates for jobs in tech and AI but need help with networking to break into a field that often lacks in diversity, the U.S. Congressman for Silicon Valley said in a Durham stop.

Big Tech companies need to do more to diversify their workforce, and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna says he’s got a plan to make it happen.

Khanna is a California Democrat who represents Silicon Valley. He’s been touring Southern states, including a stop Monday night in Durham. Ahead of a speech at Duke University, he talked to WRAL on the federal government shutdown — calling for a change in leadership in his party — as well as on his efforts to connect the Big Tech companies in his backyard with students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

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The nation’s HBCUs are putting out smart, ambitious graduates, Khanna said. But the tech world can be so insular and focused on networking that it’s hard for outsiders to break in. Increasing diversity in the field should help the companies, their customers, the employees and their families, he said. But it won’t happen without intentional effort to bring HBCU students into training and networking programs.

“They're talented, meritorious people — but they don't have an opportunity because of the networks of exclusion,” Khanna said. “And we are looking to pull up that talent. It's not a handout. It's not supporting someone who's not qualified. It's looking for talent in every zip code.”

Just a few miles away on the other side of Durham, N.C. Central University received a $1 million grant nearly a year ago to start a new institute on campus focused on artificial intelligence.

Siobahn Day Grady, the computer scientist leading the program, said she agrees with Khanna that diversity is a plus for any large organization. “Having folks on your team who think differently than you do, (who) bring a new idea, new insights, new lived experiences — those are critical for moving the needle forward in any space, any sector,” she said in an interview Tuesday.

And as Grady works this semester on teaching her first cohort of students how to build AI products and find work in that field, she said, she’s also helping others on Central’s campus learn how to responsibly use AI in their own fields.

“We want our students, our faculty, our staff, to be not only understanding foundationally what AI is — but we want them to be able to build in this space as well, and for our students to become leaders in the AI space,” Grady said.

Some tech companies are actively trying to diversify. Google awarded Central the $1 million grant that funds Grady’s AI institute; it’s also the company working with Khanna to help fund scholarships for HBCU students across the country to take a nine-month coding class that can get them in the door at companies including Google, Amazon, Nvidia and others.

But pro-diversity efforts also face intense political scrutiny, particularly in North Carolina. The conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action nationwide, in a 2023 ruling in a case brought against UNC-Chapel Hill. And North Carolina’s Republican-led legislature has passed several bills in recent years, including three in 2025 that have been vetoed by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, targeting DEI in state government, schools and universities. The UNC System in 2024 removed DEI policies and goals from public universities statewide.

Khanna dismisses the notion that helping people from minority communities break into lucrative fields is wrong. When he was a professor at Stanford, he said, he had students who would get funding to start a tech company “before they had an idea. Why? Because they knew the email of the venture capitalist.”

Since networking for these types of opportunities can so often rely on having well-connected parents, he said he’s not shy about wanting to broaden the opportunities and get more people noticed, if they have the skills to contribute.

“In one generation, you can build wealth with technology,” Khanna said. “That's the opportunity. The challenge is: Right now, it's all concentrated in a few places. And the question is: Are we going to have tech billionaires control our future? Or are we going to give every American a chance of economic success?”