Why are we doing this?
The Need
Students in underserved areas often lack an understanding of the career paths that are available to them. They can’t see beyond the communities within which they live. While they use technology everyday, they don’t understand how it was made, or why it was made that way. By giving them an understanding of both of those elements, they’ll learn that they have the power to effect and influence it. To accomplish this goal, young people must have the opportunity to learn these skills and use them for their personal interests to stoke their creativity and drive for learning. Where you grow up doesn’t determine how great of an engineer, designer, or entrepreneur you might by however, it can determine whether you get the opportunities necessary to pursue one of those options in the first place.
Inequality
72 percent of the U.S. landmass is considered rural, and around 18 percent of K-12 public school students attend a school that is classified as rural. Rural students may have less access to high-speed internet, AP coursework, or extracurricular opportunities. Low-income students in urban school districts are at greater risk of experiencing less experienced teachers, inferior infrastructure, and a curriculum that is wholly incomparable to wealthier districts. The zip code of a student—a simple five-digit numerical code—greatly impacts the likelihood of future success for the students attending schools in high poverty areas. In the 2010 Pew Research Center report, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, research found that approximately 19 percent of students graduating from urban school districts go on to attend college as compared to 70 percent of students graduating from suburban school districts.
A Better Future for Everyone
By bringing these resources to schools that need them most, we can change the future. Teachers that go through training and teach our summer camp build a newfound capacity at their school to teach these subjects year around. Students find community among other students as well as students around the United States that are learning the same skills they are. Most importantly, students learn about what they’re capable of. They learn how to materialize and share their ideas. We focus on teaching skills that students can continue to hone well after the camp where all they need is access a computer with internet. If they keep practicing, they’ll have access to internships, new learning opportunities, and set themselves up to easily continue their studies in college, at a boot camp, with a large tech company, or a venture of their own.