We’re excited to celebrate a major milestone in Minnesota today with the opening of the state’s 10th Best Buy Teen Tech Center®, a program of the Best Buy Foundation. The new center, located at the Richfield Middle School Boys & Girls Club powered by Premium Retail, is the 53rd Teen Tech Center to open.
This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the foundation’s signature program, and Best Buy is committed to help build 100 Teen Tech Centers across the country by 2025.
We’re excited to announce that for the third year, Best Buy customers will be able to join us in our mission to help teens build brighter futures through technology.
The main way we do this is by supporting the Best Buy Teen Tech Center® program, an initiative of the Best Buy Foundation. The program provides tools, training and mentorship so young people can discover their passions and pursue career and education goals.
Starting March 1, customers who make purchases in Best Buy stores, online, or on the app will be able to add a donation to the Best Buy Foundation in support of Teen Tech Centers.
Youth in Charlotte, N.C., will now have access to cutting-edge technology and training with the opening of the first Best Buy Teen Tech Center® in the state.
The Teen Tech Center, a program of the Best Buy Foundation, will be housed at the YMCA of Greater Charlotte and powered by Charlotte-based Atrium Health, a nonprofit health system. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Best Buy Teen Tech Center program, making Charlotte the 52nd center to join the growing network across the country.
Best Buy is empowering the next generation of Hollywood producers, script writers and filmmakers by supporting young people from disinvested communities across Los Angeles county.
We have partnered with The Hollywood Reporter to provide a full scholarship to Loyola Marymount University to a mentee in the publication’s acclaimed Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program (WIE). In addition, program participants will have access to the Los Angeles Community Impact Hub, a network of up to 12 Best Buy Teen Tech Centers® that provide access to cutting-edge technology and career training opportunities.
A new partnership between Best Buy Foundation and Banijay Americas, a division of Banijay, the world’s leading producer and distributor of international content, is set to launch early next year, creating an entertainment industry career development program for youth from disinvested neighborhoods across Los Angeles.
Through the career development program, Banijay Americas will collaborate to develop a TV production curriculum tailored to participants at Best Buy Teen Tech Centers®, a Best Buy Foundation program that connects youth with the latest cutting-edge technology, mentoring and career training.
Minnesota members of Best Buy Teen Tech Centers® will get a courtside view of the different types of technology careers that bring the Timberwolves and Lynx seasons to life, both on and off the court.
The Best Buy Foundation is partnering with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, and electronics company TCL, to advance tech equity and empower youth at Twin Cities Teen Tech Centers through career opportunities. The partnership with the Timberwolves and Lynx will give local Teen Tech Center members a behind-the-scenes look at how tech is used during each basketball game.
We’ve always known Best Buy customers are the best. Now we have proof – over the last 5 months, Best Buy customers stepped up and contributed more than $7.5 million to the Best Buy Foundation in support of Best Buy Teen Tech Centers®.
Between May 1 and Oct. 1, customers contributed in stores and online to help continue the expansion of the Teen Tech Center network, including programming for career and post-secondary transitions for teens from disinvested communities.
“It is inspiring to see our customers show up in a big way year after year to support this important cause,” said Andrea Wood, Best Buy’s vice president of social impact.
Today, The Best Buy Foundation celebrated the grand opening of the Best Buy Teen Tech Center® at Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA) in San José, California. The center provides teens with access to cutting-edge technology, including tools for film, digital media, audio engineering and music production.
Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, is co-funding the Teen Tech Center. Their contribution to MACLA will support the work the center is doing to provide tech access, digital skills training and mentorship for youth.
For Garrison Graham, now a Best Buy product flow specialist in Virginia, what started out as weekly visits to his local Teen Tech Center has now evolved into a paid, in-store internship experience.
Earlier this year, Garrison was given the opportunity to become one of 20 in our Career Pathways program, which focuses on the career development of the members of Teen Tech Centers, where he transitioned from Teen Tech Center member to Best Buy intern.
Best Buy Teen Tech Centers® provide safe, after-school spaces where teens can get hands-on experience with the latest technology alongside adult mentors and volunteers.
For Damien Harmon, Gary, Indiana will always be home. It’s the place that raised him, invested in his future, and gave him the confidence to go out and chase his dreams.
Now Executive Vice President of Omnichannel at Best Buy, a role where he leads stores, Geek Squad and all physical customer touch points, Damien is giving back to his hometown the best way he knows how – through tech. Alongside his wife, Katy, they are sponsoring Gary’s first Best Buy Teen Tech Center®, giving Gary teens access to technology that will help them shape their futures.
The Best Buy Foundation is teaming up with Meta to power six Best Buy Teen Tech Center® locations across the country. It’s a major investment by Meta that will bring augmented reality and virtual reality technology and hardware to our growing network of safe, after-school spaces that provide tech access, training and mentorship for youth.
The first of these Meta-powered Teen Tech Centers is celebrating its grand opening today at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula at the Moldaw-Zaffaroni Club in East Palo Alto, California.
About 30 youth at a Best Buy Teen Tech Center in Minneapolis recently got a behind-the-headset look at how virtual reality (VR) and professional baseball can work together.
The Minnesota Twins and REM5, a Minneapolis-based immersive technology company, stopped by the Teen Tech Center at the Brian Coyle Community Center to give VR demos with a program that simulates real-life jobs.
They also showed off their recent project, Twins XR: The Art of Baseball, an immersive, 3D experience that showcases digital art and player highlights.