This week, South Bend Code School was honored with the Champions for Computer Science Award from Code.org. One of the perks of receiving this award was having the opportunity to fly to San Francisco to be honored alongside other winners, consisting of students, educators, school districts, and programs. The honorees were the best and brightest in computer science education.
Another one of the perks was getting to hear three very established women in tech present. Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Peggy Johnson of Microsoft, and Susan Wojcicki of YouTube, all talked about their experiences as women in the field of technology.
We also had the opportunity to hear from Governors from around the country about what they are doing to increase computer science education in their states. State governments from Arkansas, Montana, California, and our own Indiana were all represented at the award ceremony.
Interestingly, there were common themes among all of the speeches, presentations, and conversations that were held at the conference.
Everyone who spoke at this event was concerned about the tech skills gap that we are fast approaching. Currently the US Department of Labor shows approximately 500,000 unfilled tech jobs and that number is expected to grow to over 1,000,000 by 2020.
These presenters also seemed to have concern for the lack of female and minority representation in the field of technology. The push for these groups to participate in the ever growing and ever advancing field of tech is at an all time high.
There was also indication that although we are gaining momentum and backing behind computer science training at all levels, there is still a lack of qualified and experienced individuals who are capable of teaching these kinds of programs or courses.
At South Bend Code School, we are tackling all of these issues on a daily basis. Our commitment to giving students job ready skills, striving for strong female and minority participation in programs, and growing the reach of our program are all examples of ways we are working on bolstering the number of students from diverse backgrounds with quality computer science education.
We take this award as a challenge to continue to work towards excellence in the work we do. Our goal is to keep growing, keep coding, and keep providing next level opportunities for students in our programs.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way!
