Teen Tech Center at MACLA Youth Programs
MACLA / Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (Teen Tech Center), 500 S. First Street, San José, CA 95113
About
Teen Tech Center at MACLA Youth Programs offers hands-on multimedia activities such as photography, filmmaking, podcasting, stop-motion animation, illustration, music creation, street photography, and creating short horror-inspired films. Youth take part in scriptwriting, directing, camera work, editing, movie and music production, augmented reality projects, and recreational soccer. The program also includes a youth exhibitions workshop where participants gain experience as artists and curators, leading to public gallery openings where they present and sell their work, and film clubs where they direct, film, edit, and complete original short films.
• Ages: 9–18 years old
• Schedule: Teen Tech Center hours are Monday–Friday, 3:00–7:00 pm, with year-round and seasonal options including long-term workshops running from September 2025 through July 2026 and shorter sessions ranging from about two to eight weeks.
• Price: Suggested one-time donation of $25.
The Teen Tech Center at MACLA is described as a free arts education program dedicated to mentoring Silicon Valley youth in 21st-century skill development through multimedia production, with free year-round classes in augmented reality, stop-motion animation, movie and music production, podcasting, and photography. Summer and after-school workshops are taught by experienced industry professionals in a state-of-the-art studio environment, and range from individual to group-based projects. The program focuses on professional video and sound production, visual and performing arts, and photography, and offers a venue for youth to explore relevant social, personal, and community issues, engage in community dialogue, develop artistic voices, become cultural innovators, and discover how art is used for social change. It provides artistic, technical, and practical work skills and experience to prepare participants for college and beyond, and offers college and career readiness skills while empowering youth from impacted neighborhoods to make positive life choices and use their voices for social change and personal expression.
Students from any skill level are welcome to join anytime during the year, and new members ages 9–17 years old are accepted at all levels. The Pathways program provides youth ages 15½–17 the opportunity to explore STEAM careers and develop tech, trade, and life skills with a year-long commitment, and Pathways members ages 15–19 take on leadership roles, mentoring younger members and guiding collaborative projects from concept to final cut. While working on collaborative projects during the year, youth earn money for participation, and during the summer they apply for paid internships. All materials are provided for the ARTS & RECreation workshop.
MACLA first teamed up in 2011 with The Black Eyed Peas Peapod Foundation and the Adobe Foundation to start the Peapod Adobe Youth Voices Academy, and in 2020 launched the Teen Tech Center at MACLA in partnership with Best Buy and The Clubhouse Network. In 2022, the Teen Tech Center at MACLA was selected to add to Clubhouse-2-Career Pathways workshops, which focus on bridging the gap of young adults from the BIPOC community entering the tech workforce through engaging workshops and hands-on programming ending in workforce readiness skills for teens. One participant, Ellis Carter, shared, “My time at the TTC has helped me think more critically and intentionally about the way I maneuver through the world as a person and as an artist.”
Last updated June 19, 2026.
• Ages: 9–18 years old
• Schedule: Teen Tech Center hours are Monday–Friday, 3:00–7:00 pm, with year-round and seasonal options including long-term workshops running from September 2025 through July 2026 and shorter sessions ranging from about two to eight weeks.
• Price: Suggested one-time donation of $25.
The Teen Tech Center at MACLA is described as a free arts education program dedicated to mentoring Silicon Valley youth in 21st-century skill development through multimedia production, with free year-round classes in augmented reality, stop-motion animation, movie and music production, podcasting, and photography. Summer and after-school workshops are taught by experienced industry professionals in a state-of-the-art studio environment, and range from individual to group-based projects. The program focuses on professional video and sound production, visual and performing arts, and photography, and offers a venue for youth to explore relevant social, personal, and community issues, engage in community dialogue, develop artistic voices, become cultural innovators, and discover how art is used for social change. It provides artistic, technical, and practical work skills and experience to prepare participants for college and beyond, and offers college and career readiness skills while empowering youth from impacted neighborhoods to make positive life choices and use their voices for social change and personal expression.
Students from any skill level are welcome to join anytime during the year, and new members ages 9–17 years old are accepted at all levels. The Pathways program provides youth ages 15½–17 the opportunity to explore STEAM careers and develop tech, trade, and life skills with a year-long commitment, and Pathways members ages 15–19 take on leadership roles, mentoring younger members and guiding collaborative projects from concept to final cut. While working on collaborative projects during the year, youth earn money for participation, and during the summer they apply for paid internships. All materials are provided for the ARTS & RECreation workshop.
MACLA first teamed up in 2011 with The Black Eyed Peas Peapod Foundation and the Adobe Foundation to start the Peapod Adobe Youth Voices Academy, and in 2020 launched the Teen Tech Center at MACLA in partnership with Best Buy and The Clubhouse Network. In 2022, the Teen Tech Center at MACLA was selected to add to Clubhouse-2-Career Pathways workshops, which focus on bridging the gap of young adults from the BIPOC community entering the tech workforce through engaging workshops and hands-on programming ending in workforce readiness skills for teens. One participant, Ellis Carter, shared, “My time at the TTC has helped me think more critically and intentionally about the way I maneuver through the world as a person and as an artist.”
Last updated June 19, 2026.
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