Pumped! Scholarship Awards
As I reflect on what to write today for my 10x10 challenge, only one thought dominates my mind – tomorrow, Boca Code, MediaOps, and City Furniture will be awarding 5 students, all of whom come from underserved communities, full or partial scholarships to attend Boca Code’s flagship Software Engineering Career Course.
These students will attend Boca Code for 10 weeks to learn all of the hard and soft skills needed to be successful software engineers, a career that is not only in high demand, but also has an average salary over $108,000.
While coding bootcamps are incredible opportunities for almost anyone, for these individuals it is a chance to follow a path few in their communities are even aware exists for them.
One applicant explained that growing up in his hometown, the only paths that one grew up seeing before them was to go into sports, entertainment, or crime. He hopes to return to his old neighborhood a successful software engineer and make sure the children all see another path.
Another applicant is the daughter of immigrants that didn’t speak English. She was the first of her family to attend college, but worked full-time as a waitress to pay her tuition and bills. Even with that burden, she managed to graduate with a degree in Neuroscience and a minor in Psychology. Now she wants to add software engineering so she can specialize in Artificial Intelligence.
One applicant wants to be a software engineer to right the wrongs of algorithm biases. You see, so much of the code that we take for granted and are increasingly become important in our lives – from facial-recognition to the simple act of getting soap from an automatic dispenser – was written without the help of those that are under-represented in tech. Imagine being a woman of color and seeing all of the women easily wash their hands in the restroom, but when it is your turn, the automatic dispenser doesn’t recognize your hands simply because of your skin color.
It thrills me that not only are we preparing our students for careers in tech, but our staff is passionate about teaching about these biases. We teach about the importance of equity and inclusivity and accessibility in everything we build. Because most of us were not taught these things from the beginning, but stumbled upon these topics later in our careers.
It further thrills me that one of our first graduates chose a final project that is, itself, an accessibility tool, intended to allow anyone, no matter their ability or input device, to efficiently write code.
The Engineer the Change Scholarship, first imagined by Alan Shimel, CEO of MediaOps, and later co-sponsored by City Furniture and Boca Code, will help provide an incredible opportunity to several worth students. We hope that many companies will take join us in sponsoring students.
