The Problem: Nationally, two-thirds of black students and nearly three-fifths of Hispanic students who originally entered a STEM college degree program ultimately leave that field; either switching to a non-STEM field or exiting college altogether.
The Proposal (Organization Description): Code2College (C2C) seeks to address this challenge by focusing on the key drivers of success and persistence in STEM, particularly computer science and technology, careers: pre-college training and industry experience. By sourcing volunteers from the tech sector, C2C will provide technical training (in our first year, HTML, CSS and JavaScript), professional development and mentorship to black and Latino high school students in the Austin area during the school year. Following the school-year programming, students will serve in a paid, project-based summer internship at a local STEM-oriented firm. The long-term vision is to develop a multi-year program by which students who start with C2C in their sophomore year, and complete three full years of the program, would enter college as a full-stack developer with several years of practical experience. With Code2College, expertise in coding is not the end goal, but rather a vehicle for black and Latino students to enter and thrive in STEM fields.
Goals: (1) 100% of student participants complete school-year programming, (2) 100% of students complete technical portfolio and (3) 100% of students complete summer internship projects
(Tentative) Intern Projects: a) Schedule/coordinate monthly professional development and college access programming for student participants, b) Conduct research toward improving quality of grant application submissions and c) Coordinate corporate and institutional campus visits
Location(s): Multiple (Pflugerville, UT Campus, Central Austin) locations, although some work can be conducted remotely
Skills/Experience Requested: Data analysis/interpretation, strong communication (especially email) skills, attention to detail and familiarity with Excel and/or PowerPoint are all preferrable skill sets
Majors Accepted/Preferred: All majors will be considered
Compensation: Unpaid
If interested, contact Matt Stephenson at matt@code2college.org