Thank you Capital One for sponsoring this post.
It’s Computer Science Education Week and I’m pleased to partner with Capital One to share some of their related efforts.
Computer Science Education Week
Designed to overlap with Admiral Grace Murray Hopper’s December 9 birthday, CSEdWeek is an annual program dedicated to inspiring K-12 students to take interest in computer science.
Give me a second to brag about this STEM girl: recently, on November 22, 1026, “Amazing Grace” was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama. Admiral Hopper received the award posthumously in recognition of her role as a leader in the field of computer science. You can learn more about her via this brief video and see her in fine and feisty form on this old clip of the David Letterman show.
Like the hundreds of partners behind Computer Science Education Week, Capital One is also working to increase digital and technical literacy as well as computer programming skills through its Future Edge initiative.
Capital One launched the initiative in 2015 with a pledge to commit $150 million over the course of five years to leading educational and community organizations, ultimately helping Americans build the skills they need to success in today’s digital economy.
Computer Science Job$
According to a 2016 White House briefing, an analysis of 26 million job postings found that nearly half of all the jobs in the top quartile in pay require some computer programming knowledge or skill.
And while 71% of all new jobs in STEM are in computing, but only 8% of STEM graduates are in Computer Science.
CS for All; Lucrative Jobs for All
With those statistics in mind, it’s no surprise that a key piece of Capital One’s Future Edge initiative centers on youth. In 2014, Capital One launched the C1 Coders program, which seeks to help today’s students develop the coding and technical skills that will be critical for success in tomorrow’s technology-driven economy.
Have you heard about Hour of Code? Since 2013, Hour of Code has been a hallmark of Computer Science Education Week. It provides dozens of free, hour-long lessons to introduce students to coding logic and coding skills as well as lessons to help take those skills to the next level. In that first year Hour of Code reached over 15 million students and over 35,000 events across 167 countries. In 2015, Hour of Code served up 100 million lessons in more than 180 countries!
The C1 Coders program takes it up a notch. Through its 10-week curriculum, the program helps middle school students learn about software engineering, as well as how to develop their own mobile apps using MIT App Inventor 2. Under the guidance of Capital One volunteers, students learn the principles of software development, motion detection, control, and, of course, coding. 1,000 sixth-, seventh-, and eight-grade students in 20 schools across the country participated in this year’s program alone.
Students participating in the C1 Coders also learn by doing. They develop their own and present them at the C1 Coders closing event, where they compete for prizes in four categories: Best Application, Most User-Friendly, Most Creative and Most Technical. Students also receive special surprises to encourage them to keep building their skills once the program ends.