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CLEVELAND Tuesday afternoon brought a lot of excitement at Cleveland State University for the celebration of the launch of the Center for Computing Education and Instruction.

It is a partnership between CSU and Cleveland Metropolitan School District that's been a decade in the making. The center trains CMSD teachers so they can then provide computer science and information technology education to their students in grades K-12.

So far, the district says 84 CMSD teachers have been trained, with more to come.

The effort is not only growing the pipeline in Cleveland for this booming industry but also expanding equitable access to the training and education that's needed to fill these in-demand, high-paying jobs.

It is an important issue News 5 has covered for years and that we're now following through on with these latest developments.

It is for students like Luis Gutierrez, 16, who is a junior at John Marshall School of Information Technology. He is only the second high school student to complete the quantum computing internship at Cleveland Clinic. He said it was an amazing experience that would not only be great on his resume but exposed him to inspirational researchers, scientists, and work he would've otherwise never imagined.

"I had so many opportunities working with the quantum computing," said Luis. "That is a crazy machine that I've never experienced, and I was able to work on it and do such awesome calculations."

It is also for students like Julien Medina, 17, a senior at John Marshall. He interned at NASA Glenn and said it helped prepare him for his future.

"I think it's important to know there are now pipelines in place for people to learn," said Julien. "It's not just a specialty class or school dedicated to getting people into it. It's not just like you took this one class and now you're good. It's a whole curriculum. It's a whole four-year experience, even through middle school. It's always growing, and you're always learning."

CMSD says last year, 142 Cleveland high school students were placed in paid IT internships and 200 are expected this year.

More money is on the way.

Ohio Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted was also at Tuesday's launch at CSU. He said the goal is to make Ohio the technology hub of the Midwest, and that starts with educating in our schools and expanding opportunities to experience CS and IT.

Husted also announced CSU is the recipient of $650,000 through the Teach CS state grant program.

Also, the Cleveland Foundation, which program organizers say has given $1.5 million since 2016 to help the effort, announced an additional $400,000 grant for the new center for computing education and instruction.

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