Today, New Signature proudly announced it has won the 2012 Microsoft Citizenship Opportunities for Youth Partner of the Year Award. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.
“To win a Microsoft Partner Award is a special honor for our company, and to do so in recognition of our support for non-profit Year Up makes it especially gratifying,” said Christopher Hertz, co-founder and CEO of Washington, DC-based New Signature. “We are thrilled to work with Year Up in the National Capital Region, and we are honored to accept this award in recognition of a program that will continue to serve DC-area urban young adults for many years to come.” Hertz continued, “We integrate social responsibility into every aspect of New Signature and empower employees to creatively apply their expertise to provide urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their full potential.”
“Year Up National Capital Region students have benefited greatly from New Signature’s support,” said Ronda Harris Thompson, executive director, Year Up National Capital Region. “The team at New Signature has gone beyond just promoting our program; they have helped update our IT curriculum, provided mentorship to our trainers, offered strategic guidance on supporting IT systems, and initiated a weekly on-campus training class.”
New Signature has also provided several corporate internships to Year Up students in a second phase of the program, and three former Year Up interns are now full-time employees at the firm. Thompson added: “New Signature is committed to helping us to have an even greater impact on the community, and to prove that young adults from Year Up can add immediate value to local firms and government agencies.”
Awards were presented in multiple categories, with winners chosen from a set of nearly 3,000 entrants worldwide. New Signature was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in Citizenship Opportunities for Youth.
The Opportunities for Youth—Citizenship Partner of the Year award recognizes a partner that created a unique technology offering, or supported a strong employee engagement program, in order to serve the needs of youth (ages 6 to 24). The winning partner engaged its employees to lend time and expertise in support of a nonprofit focused on youth causes. The winning solution or program was deployed within the past year.
“At Microsoft we believe that empowering youth to imagine and realize their opportunity in the world is one of the most important things we can do as a company and with our partners,” said Lori Harnick, general manager of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Microsoft Corporation. “Our Opportunities for Youth Partner of the Year Award is one we place a lot of importance on, and it was incredible to see the diversity and reach of the work our partners around the world are doing to help young people in their communities.”
Harnick continued: “This year’s winner is New Signature, who has partnered with nonprofit Year Up, to provide an intensive training program for at-risk youth from the ages of 18 to 24 that includes a combination of hands-on skill development, college credits, and corporate internships. They have provided every young person in the course with an internship and 84 percent of people who complete the course are employed and attending college full time. It’s an incredible example of how, together, we can empower young people through technology, training, and experiences.”
The Microsoft Partner Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions during the past year.
