Hacktech Presents: Protohacks

An Investment in the Future 

It’s been more than a month since hackTECH: Santa Monica, and things are starting to settle down a bit with the freshman-filled hackTECH team. We don’t like the sound of that. We want to continue to impact the community, and so we’ve taken on an even bigger challenge.

We want to change how students feel about Computer Science. Thinking back on hackTECH, we invited students from Stanford, Berkeley, USC, UCLA, Caltech— almost all of our audience is well off and has opportunities well beyond the average student.

Protohacks is breaking those stereotypes in a huge way. In late April, we’re targeting low-income high school students in Pasadena and putting on an event like never before.

100 High Schoolers.

100 Amazing Mentors.

Microsoft’s Playa Vista Space

Every student hated learning at some point— until they were excited by something that really hit the right chord. Computer Science has the power to do just that. Learning isn’t always sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher speak at you. It’s diving straight into what you love.

We want to empower these students. We want to excite these students.

A lot of these students don’t have access to the right resources. Let’s put a computer in their hands. Let’s put a professional developer evangelist at their side. We aren’t just putting 200 students in a huge hall and hoping they learn. We’re making sure there is a 1:1 ratio between mentors and students.

In the coming month, we’re incredibly thrilled to be speaking at these schools and to these students. We’re excited to work with teachers, parents, and administrators.

Stealing words from Benjamin Franklin:

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

We’re ready to invest in our community.

Thanks to Shubhankar Jain, David Mace, Spencer Moran, April Luo, Brandon Foo, Siddharth Murching, and Justin Brezhnev for making an amazing hackTECH team.