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Using Spirits to Spark Conversation and Community in Escondido

Cassandra Schaeg, owner and operator of SIP Wine & Beer on Orange Street is on a mission to inspire her fellow Escondido neighbors to live, work, and play in the local community. “Our focus is on community, culture, and conversation,” said Schaeg, an Escondido resident.

“The emphasis on supporting our local community is the overall reason why I decided to open SIP,” Schaeg added. “I decided to lay roots here. And in living here, I realized I wasn’t spending my money here. I wasn’t eating here, and I wasn’t involved in the community.” 

Schaeg wanted to change that. She understands how important local spending is to a city and began finding ways to live and spend in Escondido. “When people spend money here, the sales tax goes towards helping the city thrive and building the community. People are paying attention to the importance of local spending and I think that needs to continue because people really need to understand what it means to invest in your community.” 

Schaeg changed her habits and then went one step further by investing in Escondido. “After doing research and realizing there’s an emerging wine presence and realizing there were no wine bars in town, I decided to take a risk and open a wine bar here.”

“Wine is a white-male-dominated industry,” Schaeg added. “However, many of its consumers are women, so for me it is important to highlight that.” 

Formed in 2015 and open since June 2016, SIP has become a welcomed community space. According to Schaeg, it has evolved into a space for women and minorities and local beer and winemakers to showcase their products.

“I am definitely blessed and fortunate to have opened SIP in Escondido. This is a charming city,” she  said. “I am one of very few Black business owners in this city and in all, I’ve been welcomed.”

Schaeg admits she is also one of the few women-owned minorities in the wine and beer industry and she sees this as an opportunity to transform the industry. “It’s really important for me to use the platform to let people know that there are women and minority wine and beer makers out there who are changing the narrative on what the industry should look like,” she said.. “The wine and beer making industry is very small. We all know each other, and so before things started to shift (due to COVID-19), we were on a mission to support each other.” 

As a wine bar and tasting room, Schaeg makes it a point to highlight many of the local beer and winemakers in Escondido and throughout North County. Local beer and winemakers that have been featured at SIP include  Altipiano, owned by San Diego native Denise Clark; BK Sellers, Keys Creek Winery; and Latitude 33 Brewing. Others throughout California have included the McBride Sisters winery owners Robin and Andrea, who own the largest Black female-owned winery in the United States; Kita Wines, owned by Native American Tara Gomez; and Brown Napa Valley, also Black family-owned winery.

“The wine and beer industry in North County knows who I am. The goal is for people to spend money in this city,” said Schaeg. 

In addition to SIP, Schaeg produces a YouTube channel show called WineVersations. “It’s the platform to have disruptive conversations with wine or beer being the unifier,” Schaeg said. “When you come into SIP, people here are talking about a variety of topics, such as politics, social justice, and any array of things. Here you can have that conversation, and that’s where WineVersations came in.” 

Guests have included Mayor Paul McNamara and Deputy Mayor Consuelo Martinez, who have both spoken about Escondido’s changing community and the benefits of its changes; Dr. Steven Jones, owner of Jones Inclusive; and the McBride sisters.

The pandemic has shut down the in-person conversations for now, but luckily Schaeg is able to keep her doors open for to-go orders. She is grateful for this, not only because it is saving her business, but also because being open allows her to stay connected to the community.

“Even though we are closed, being able to still connect with people who are picking up to-go orders definitely makes my heart smile,” said Schaeg. “We’ve all been confined and had very little contact, but the 10-to-15 minutes I get to spend with someone who is coming in here because they need to stock up on their wine is worth it. I’m so appreciative towards the people who continue to support us.”

Schaeg is confident once businesses begin to fully re-open, she will continue to promote all the new and inspiring people who are moving the wine and beer industry forward. “Once we are able to open safely, we will highlight people in the wine and beer industry who are definitely trailblazers.”

SIP Wine & Beer is located at 129-131 S. Orange Street in Escondido. Customers can call (442) 248-8466 to order wine and beer for pick up. 

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‘New Collar’ Job Training Program in Escondido Pays Students to Learn

As the knowledge economy continues to grow, apprenticeship programs like the one at Escondido-based San Diego Code School will become more important to regions around the globe, sparking job growth and boosting quality of life in communities. The San Diego Code School’s apprenticeship program was recently approved by the Department of Apprenticeship Standards and received Employment Training Panel funding to support workforce development at its two locations in downtown Escondido and Southeast San Diego - both achievements of which should be celebrated!

The San Diego Code School, which opened in September 2018, has shifted gears a bit and is now tuition free and its students get paid to code. The apprenticeship program, which started in March 2020, follows many traditional trade professions giving students a chance to learn by working directly in the field. Students accepted into the program are placed in a yearlong paid technology position where they learn the process by doing it. The San Diego Code School works with partner companies throughout the county - including ServiceNow, NewRocket, BD, UCSD/PoNG, Kizen, and BrainLeap - who pay apprentices to learn software development, who in turn, get real world experiences in the industry. 

Most of the students who apply for these apprenticeships are between 25-to-35 years old, and are looking to transition into technology.

“I’m trying to help people that are in the earlier parts of their professional careers, figure out what they can do to get back into a job,” said Michael Roberts, Founder of San Diego Code School.  

As far as recruiting goes, Roberts’ approach is to reach out to community organizations for candidates. Here he is finding young people who may not be on the traditional college career path yet are still looking for good jobs. “By reaching out into the community, we get this much more diverse candidate pool and that ultimately results in more candidates working their way through and qualifying for this kind of role,” he said.

This recruiting technique has proven successful as recently 99 potential students applied for four open spaces.

Roberts - a software engineer who has worked in the technology space for three decades -  feels the apprenticeship model works well for the technology sector. “It’s a super simple concept when you boil it down to the way we get funded.” 

He went on to explain that instead of having companies ship their workload offshore, they instead send it to San Diego Code School and there, local students will work on the projects. “From the students' perspective, it’s even simpler. You’re just getting paid to learn.”

There has been such a demand for its unique program that the San Diego Code School expanded from its home base in downtown Escondido to another location in southeast San Diego. “These are both untapped areas in San Diego,” said Roberts, adding that these areas are rich in minority communities who tend to be underrepresented in technology. “We want to create that opportunity where otherwise it may not be.” 

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has shut down its physical locations, the school is operating fully remotely. 

By participating in this program, students become proficient in QA (Quality Assurance), software engineering and software developer roles. These skills will give them the training and experience to find programming and junior-level software engineering roles. 

Roberts calls this the “new collar” job. “I think the future of work is going to look like this,” he said. “A lot of jobs are going to be in some sort of technology and I feel like these are fundamental skills. Folks should have the basic mechanics of how to do some light coding. They really need to be able to think programmatically to break problems down and deconstruct, and communicate technology, all those things that we can teach someone to do fairly well in a year’s time.”

Apprentices from San Diego Code School have been placed in several small-to-midsize technology companies throughout San Diego, and some are working with major companies such as Walmart Labs and Sony. 

San Diego Code School has a nonprofit branch that helps support the mission to bring minority and underrepresented students to technology. Advancing San Diego, an initiative through San Diego EDC, has backed the school with a grant that has offered a few students internship hours through designated work they provide. “We think it’s an awesome opportunity for them to get some real-world experience,” said Roberts. 

Roberts is continually seeking grants and partnership opportunities like Advancing San Diego to continue to build the school and give more students opportunities to learn and work in the regional  tech industry. 

San Diego Code School is also part of Innovate 78, and Roberts feels the North County is a thriving community. “Being around so many dynamic leaders in the area and seeing all the advanced manufacturing and all the great things happening up close and personal, I think has been really eye-opening for me,” he said.

Roberts added the city leaders of Escondido have welcomed his business and have offered assistance in many ways. “We’ve even had the mayor over. I spent a lot of time in this area and still did not expect the kind of warm reception that we’ve had in the City of Escondido.” 

Roberts, who feels Escondido is the perfect fit for his school, added, “Anybody that wants to get involved can check out our website. We’re always looking for you; companies or sponsors. If folks want to further this cause and help create this breadth of underrepresented talent, we’re always looking for folks that are willing to help us out.”

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