Pros
Amazing young people who are extremely intelligent, eager, and capable. Alumni who work for the organization truly are gems for the current students. People of color working for the organization are the most culturally competent and work diligently to have that knowledge pervade the staff at every level.
Cons
Alumni who transition into employment are treated poorly. Senior management placates lower level staff through arbitrary "development" around cultural competency. Students and alumni often face micro aggressions around race and culture daily, making their experience disappointing to horrific. Alumni who work for the organization hit a professional ceiling, aren't taken seriously as staff, and are treated with disrespect when missing professional marks that they haven't been properly trained to hit. Ultimately, Year Up provides cheap labor to corporations under the guise of helping poor kids of color make more money than they would in retail. It accomplishes both the former and the latter sometimes, but many times, alumni end up back in retail. Figures around average salary are more a result of a few alumni making extremely high salaries while the rest make less than their degreed counterparts for doing the same work.