Central Texas is facing a crisis. Despite its regional reputation for innovation, the nearly 5,000 technology companies with offices in the Austin area and several world-class research institutions, there remains a shortage of skilled, local talent to fill a wide variety of technical roles. What’s worse, we have a population of students in Central Texas who remain underserved. Facing a talent surplus and opportunity deficit, many black, Latino and low-income students lack two of the most ... Read More
Central Texas is facing a crisis. Despite its regional reputation for innovation, the nearly 5,000 technology companies with offices in the Austin area and several world-class research institutions, there remains a shortage of skilled, local talent to fill a wide variety of technical roles. What’s worse, we have a population of students in Central Texas who remain underserved. Facing a talent surplus and opportunity deficit, many black, Latino and low-income students lack two of the most critical factors to entering pathways into STEM careers: exposure and practical experience. Students who haven’t met a data scientist, don’t have an anesthesiologist in the family, nor heard of the investment banking industry, are unlikely to pursue these or other technical fields. And those who do, will find themselves behind the curve once matched against their affluent and/or well-resourced counterparts.
Herein lies an opportunity to develop a pipeline of diverse, local technical talent for our region: Code2College. Coding education is low-cost and accessible, yet highly powerful and in-demand. When coupled with our organization’s delivery of professional development and internship opportunities, we have a viable opportunity to fashion these students into leaders in their communities and the world. In Central Texas, there are over thirty school districts serving several hundred thousand high school students in our target demographic. We have a significant opportunity for effecting change at scale.
Code2College (C2C) is working to launch traditionally underserved students to and through college and into STEM careers, by offering a multi-year college access program that connects students with local companies and volunteers from the local tech sector. Our delivery model involves:
- Coding Education Classes: tech sector professionals, serving as volunteer instructors, deliver a coding and web development curriculum twice per week, each week throughout the school year at each respective partner school campus;
- Professional Development Workshops: students spend one Saturday morning each month in workshops: developing effective communication (including verbal and email) skills and team mindsets, learning from and listening to STEM professionals sitting on industry and career panels, and engaging with university faculty and administration on how to improve their candidacy as college applicants, navigate the college environment and plan for success in STEM degree programs;
- Technical Portfolio Development: C2C staff assist all participants in using their new skills to develop a technical portfolio to enhance their candidacy as STEM degree college applicants; and
- Paid, Summer Internships: students work in intern teams of 2-4 at a corporate office location to complete actual projects that may have been deprioritized, but remain open, for their host company while being supervised by C2C staff. These internships will allow students to gain deeper knowledge and context for of the technical skills they have spent learning over the prior year.
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