Austin News

Code2College, an Austin-based nonprofit, wants to help minority students and students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds develop the skills needed to enter into Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) collegial programs. 

"We're focused on equipping predominantly black, brown, female and economically disadvantaged high school students with the technical and professional skills and exposure that they need to enter and excel in STEM fields," CEO and co-founder Matt Stephenson said in a podcast with Inside Austin. "And in our program, we leverage volunteer technical talent to advance racial and gender equity in fields where students have been historically excluded. And our program is critical because there are these gross inequities in communities of color, and there's a sheer dearth of technical talent that exists nationally and globally."

Stephenson said it is children of minority groups who are often not seen in STEM fields or who do not stay with STEM field programs while in college. 

"If you look at the college pipeline, 50% of girls, 50% of low-income students, two-thirds of Hispanic and almost three-quarters of black undergraduate students who initially selected (a) STEM major ultimately switch to a liberal arts degree or drop out completely," Stephenson said. "So in our program, we are looking to address that head on."

Tabitha Upshaw, head of Corporate Impact National Instruments, said programs offered to students in high school to help build those technical skills are very important.

"So we have three pillars in our program model: education, exposure and experience," she said. "We are recruiting volunteers from the tech ecosystem. We partner with about 60 companies (that) deliver any one of our eight curricula after school twice a week, every week throughout the school year, to our students; and students are building technical portfolios in a variety of languages from Typhon to JavaScript, and they are able to market themselves to employers both now in our program and after the fact through exposure."

Upshaw said that in addition to this, the organization also offers professional workshops to help students have skills and build their resumes. 

"Along with these professional skills ..., we are placing a growing number of these high school students into paid summer technical internships where they are working on products and projects with not only undergraduate interns but also full-time employees," Upshaw said. 

Stephenson and Upshaw both said it is so important for the community to join in helping mentor and encourage students who are interested in the STEM fields. Both agree that volunteers helping the students learn and offering internships or real-world work experience is crucial to student success. 

For more information or to volunteer, visit the Code2College website.