The fund every VC should know about. And yes, it’s all about the kids
Young people are a trailblazing bunch. Give them tools and they’ll take them places you’ve never seen. Give them robotics, drones, and wearables — they can change the world.
While new technologies are solving real problems and expanding our physical and virtual limits daily, most of these innovations are spearheaded by millennials and tech professionals. But what happens when we place these tools in the hands of the wide-eyed and fearless? Hacker Fund is doing just that. By bringing new technologies to young people, they’re recharging the community with fresh perspectives and new possibilities.
Behind Hacker Fund’s big vision are two Justins: Justin Ezor and Justin Brezhnev. They’re passionate about bringing computer science to every realm of youth education and empowering young minds to challenge their limits from a young age, and they do it all in animal onesies. Justin Ezor chats with rhubarb’s Kelsey Coppetti about Hacker Fund’s motivations and how you can get involved.
K: Tell us about Hacker Fund
J: We’re a 501(c)(3) public charity, dedicated to providing resources for computer science education. At the broadest level, we’re all about bringing the technology industry to K-12 students in the education system, and to teachers and industry professionals themselves looking to grow their knowledge base. We’re upping the ante when it comes to teaching and exposing people to new technologies and seeing what’s possible. For the industry professional, we want to provide them the ability after work to come and get a skills upgrade and learn on new technologies, in order to diversify.
K: What is your approach to introducing kids to the tech field at a young age?
J: It comes down to showing them what’s possible. We produce events like hackathons — 24 hour coding and innovation marathons where you’re building hardware, robotics, drones, wearables, apps, and websites, and at the end there’s a ‘taste test’. The whole point is to grow the community and spur innovation based on lives coming together and being around technology.
K: Why do you think education in computer science is important to young people?
J: It’s self-confidence and the ability to affect change at a mass level. You are the change, you can make it every single day, you can put electronics on the things you use daily. Apple’s whole motto is “think differently”, we hope these kids think differently about what’s in the pockets and in their hands right now. It’s not just for consumption, it’s for production — and you can make things that can help people in their everyday lives.
K: Do you think the public education system will incorporate computer science in K-12 curriculum?
J: Absolutely. It’s already happening; school systems are asking us for it. We gave a presentation in front of a group of teachers and administrators for our community partners, Bixel Exchange and explained our process and vision. They’re excited! They want to bring what we do into their curriculum (perhaps without the onesies). By bringing in new technologies, it flips the whole ship, you’re looking at things in a whole new way and kids are excited to learn. A student recently remarked on our Youtube channel, that the workshops are similar to being at school except you actually like what you’re learning and you enjoy being taught. She drops that in front of a room full of teachers and you hear the nervous laughter. It’s because the education system wants it and they know the industry is moving quickly. The teachers feel like they’re struggling to keep up, but we want to empower them to have these skills and abilities so they don’t feel left behind. At a certain point, a lot of organizations that we see are side-stepping the teachers and leaving the person that is most dedicated behind by doing stuff away from school. No, you have to go where the people are most dedicated because they’re the ones taking the low pay, and we need to support those individuals.
Imagine taking virtual reality and bringing it into the history lesson so that a student can be a part of the Martin Luther “I have a dream speech” and placed out in the crowd — or behind Martin Luther himself. It takes on a whole new effect and that’s what we want to bring.
K: You guys are hackathon wiz kids, what is your approach to planning and organizing these events?
J: In terms of hackathons, we go into the school and we give them an introductory overview of our lesson plan. We dissect what we’ve got going on currently, then provide and create a structure that works for their school. It’s a constant testing, improving and working with the system to make it all fit the industry standard and also provide an immense amount of value and excitement to the students.
Our hackathons are either 24 or 36 hours long. We also do ‘hack days’, for a span of eight hours where we’ll go into a school and bring mentors, technologies and a lesson plan to get them to be actively hands-on learning about electronics, breadboarding, or programming wearables. You name it and the industry is constantly coming out with new stuff. We just want to bring it down to where it’s really going to make an impact to the people who are innovating for the future and for the communities. These students have a lot of really great ideas that are solving problems for their everyday.
K: How would you describe Hacker Fund’s vision?
J: It’s really about the community and everyone coming together to support one another locally. We want to make computer science education a medium for people to express themselves and for students to feel like they have access to a greater realm of possibilities for affecting change. They’re making their lives matter and for families and their communities to be progressing and moving forward. Everyone experiences hardships and it’s very unique for every community. We can be used as a vessel to take people where they want to go in terms of empowering themselves and their future in a really profound way. Above all else, we believe in coming together, having fun and building a community that matters. Whatever you’re passionate about, there are like-minded individuals in technology to really expand your reach and affect change. That’s what we’re cultivating with Hacker Fund.
K: How is Hacker Fund raising money?
J: Sponsorship — we have a number of companies that support us from event to event and provide us with actual hardware. We’re also involved with corporate giving programs and personal solicitations for donations through our website.
We’re launching a fundraiser campaign this Thursday, December 17, at rhubarb studios. It’s a local fundrager for the community to support computer science education. We have our friends from Snapchat, Tinder and a student from the LA Mayor’s Youth Council, who’s a student organizer of Hacker Fund and a leader in the community. It’ll be a great time!
K: Where do the funds go?
J: Towards education programs and scaling and growing our own staff so we can support all these different initiatives that are going on, and meet demands in the education system. There’s a lot of mouths to feed and we’re really working to feed all of them.
K: How can people get involved?
J: We’re looking for mentors, people who are technical and know how to build or can mentor a hackathon. If you’re a parent and want to get involved, you can sign up for our newsletter on our website and get more ideas for resources for your kids or students. If you want to give a donation, we put it towards hardware and resources for these students to learn. It’s really up to what the community can collectively bring together so we can take it to the schools and to the students where it’s needed most.
rhubarb studios recently joined forces with Hacker Fund to create enrichment programs for young kids in the community. For more information on donations or to become a part of Hacker Fund’s initiative, head over to their website.
Originally published at www.rhubarbstudios.co on December 16, 2015.
