Dell is “Powering the Possible” for David Seifert

David Seifert is currently an intern at Dell.

In today’s media-rich world, we are bombarded with so many corporate tag lines and marketing campaigns that they often become just words in a daily stream of information and content. But when a campaign’s tag line is suddenly brought to life through a personal story of impact and transformation, the results are magical, as is the case with Dell Corporation’s “Powering the Possible” initiative and Genesys Works young professional, David Seifert.

David has faced many challenges in his young life, not the least of which is a significant learning disability that took David out of his local public high school and into an alternative learning center, Intermediate District 287’s Southwest Education Center. It was there that his program facilitator, Amy Koch, connected his interest in computers with the Genesys Works program. David successfully completed Genesys Work’s intensive IT and professional skills training program and was placed as an intern at Dell Corporation in Eden Prairie, where he works each day supporting Dell’s data storage unit.

The changes we have seen in David over the past year, and the benefit he has provided the Dell organization, are nothing short of remarkable. Guided and supported by Dell team members Scott Coulter, Ben Stusynski and Dan Fleischhacker, David is currently using his programming skills and technical prowess to develop an important training tool. 

“David’s project is centered on a set of customer facing webpages that highlight Copilot support and the teams that provide this support to our customers known internally as the “wallboard’”, Scott writes. “There was an existing application and hardware (server plus touch sensitive, wall mounted 32” plasma) that was in use for the past 2 years and located in the customer training area of the Dell location in Edina. David was given carte blanche to wipe the slate clean and start fresh with the emphasis on ease of administration and growth. He has had an opportunity to develop a Windows 8 app frontend, a middleware app, and create and link databases. The 2nd phase will be to include more specific information about team members to be used as an internal function.” Scott has been impressed with David’s work and proud of his accomplishments, exclaiming “We are very lucky to have him on the team!”

The changes we have seen in David have been profound as his social skills are now catching up with his technical knowledge and abilities. We now see a career in IT and a life of economic self-sufficiency for David, something that may not have ever happened without the generosity and support of the Dell organization and school partners like Intermediate District 287.

Genesys Works is a grateful recipient of financial and technology support through Dell Giving’s global “Powering the Possible” initiative. To see the impact Dell has had on the life of David Seifert, click here to watch a great video produced by our friends at District 287.

On behalf of all the students of Genesys Works, we offer a  big "THANK YOU!" to Michele Glaze and the Dell Corporation for its continued support of programs like Genesys Works where working together, we can “power the possible” for the David Seiferts of the world.