MENLO PARK — More than a dozen teenagers from low-income Peninsula communities learned the basics of coding this summer at Facebook, but some of the most important lessons they absorbed had nothing to do with technology.

As they addressed a crowd of proud parents and Facebook mentors, one student after another described the importance of communication: talking to strangers, giving a presentation, following up or staying in touch with people they’ve met.

Facebook Summer Academy, a six-week immersion in the world’s largest social media company, graduated its fifth class Wednesday. The program has given 80 high school juniors from hardscrabble communities — East Palo Alto, the Belle Haven neighborhood of Menlo Park, Redwood City, and San Francisco’s Mission District — the opportunity to embed themselves in various Facebook departments, from finance to transportation.

Beyond job-specific skills, and a $1,500 stipend, the 18 kids in this year’s class were exposed to a strange and possibly intimidating environment — a global technology company — and learned they could work comfortably within it.

For 15-year-old Enrique Avina, the experience bolstered his self-belief in becoming a software engineer. Enrique, of Redwood City, led a presentation Wednesday for the prototype of an app he helped develop, Xpress, that would allow grocery store customers to scan their own goods and avoid long lines.

“I see myself in tech now,” he said. “I see I can actually be impactful and make a difference.”

The program teaches the students a variety of “soft skills,” including various kinds of communication, that they wouldn’t be able to learn from a book, said Juan Salazar, Facebook’s public policy manager. And it demystifies the alien world of Silicon Valley.

“Some of these students here are the first in their family to potentially go to college,” he said. “So there’s some soft skills that sometimes you don’t get exposed to. I was a first-generation college student. I can remember the first internship I had was a pretty rough experience, just because it was the first time I was in a white-collar work environment.”

Blanca Valencia, 16, learned you don’t have to be a math or coding savant to work at Facebook or many other technology companies. There are myriad other roles at Facebook, including human resources, amenities, campus operations and community engagement.

This was the first year the program offered coding, which took Blanca, who is more adept at debating than algorithms, far outside her comfort zone. Still, she found the crash course rewarding.

“It’s so much harder than what you think it is, but I like that it was challenging,” said Blanca, who lives in East Palo Alto. “It challenges you to think another way.”

For more information on Facebook Summer Academy, including eligibility requirements, visit https://facebooksummeracademy.com.

Contact Aaron Kinney at 650-348-4357. Follow him at Twitter.com/kinneytimes.