The Flatiron School
CPO
Peter Barth
Chief Product Officer at Flatiron School, Fellow at Aspen Institute. Previously Founder & CEO of The Iron Yard, Managing Director of Iron Yard Ventures, board member at Global Accelerator Network,
Chief Product Officer at Flatiron School, Fellow at Aspen Institute. Previously Founder & CEO of The Iron Yard, Managing Director of Iron Yard Ventures, board member at Global Accelerator Network,
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Chief Product Officer, Flatiron School
The Iron Yard
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No Chains
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Opportunity Hub & The Iron Yard Launch Initiative To Provide $60K in Code School Scholarships For Minorities, Women & Underrepresented Communities… · More
Opportunity Hub (OHUB), the nation’s largest diverse and inclusive entrepreneurship school and coworking space, and The Iron Yard, the nation’s largest code school, are partnering to create Opportunity Code & Cofounders College (O.C3). Their first act is to provide $60,000 in scholarships to increase diversity in tech and tech enabled industries, particularly for men and women of color from underrepresented communities.
Access to opportunity, particularly within the technology ecosystem, isn’t always created equal. According to a 2014 USA Today article by Jessica Guynn and Elizabeth Weise, the technology industry’s predominantly white and Asian male workforce is in danger of losing touch with the diverse nation – and world – that forms its customer base. Recently released numbers from some of the largest and most powerful companies confirm what many had suspected: Blacks and Hispanics are largely absent, and women are underrepresented in Silicon Valley – from giant companies to startup-ups to venture capital firms.
Code.org predicts that there will be one million (1,000,000) more computing jobs than computing science students by 2020. O.C3 was created to address this talent deficiency head on.
“Realizing that the widening racial wealth and income gap may exclude some of our nation’s brightest talent from participating in the thriving tech economy, we reached out to the Iron Yard to create the partnership and combined curriculum,” says Rodney Sampson, Founder & CEO, Opportunity Hub, “The Iron Yard immediately stepped up to partner and provide the initial partial scholarships which will help to close the gap of students who might not be able to afford the cost of a reputable code school education.”
The Iron Yard teaches intensive, immersive 12-week courses that mentor students into professional junior-level programmers. The program goes far beyond tactical skills and teaches students how to think like software engineers. The Iron Yard has a phenomenal success rate in its career support program, helping students find all types of work in the tech industry.
Upon or during initial job placement, Opportunity Hub will teach students the ins and outs of the innovation, entrepreneurship and investment ecosystem via a 6-month weekly pre-accelerator curriculum that takes students on a navigated journey from ideation to market. The curriculum teaches entrepreneurial mindsets, ideation, customer discovery, business model generation, business planning, entrepreneurial fundamentals, access to capital and pitching.
“Programming is a lifelong study, and our process shows students how to learn so they’ll remain highly valuable for the rest of their career – whether they are working for a company or starting their own. To this end, the Iron Yard is excited to partner with Opportunity to make learning to code accessible for all, particularly underrepresented communities,” says Peter Barth, CEO, The Iron Yard.
During this year’s SXSW, Sampson and Barth announced the scholarship initiative at OHUB’s Innovator’s Dinner sponsored by The District of Columbia’s Washington DC Economic Partnership. An expansion to DC is in the works.
“This initiative creates high tech software engineering jobs immediately; and develops the technical cofounding talent required to have a diverse and inclusive technology and/or technology-enabled startup ecosystem. It goes well beyond the premise of exposing minorities to STEM. This is modern day economic and community development in action,” concludes Sampson.
To learn more or apply, visit www.opportunityhub.com/code
Opportunity Hub (OHUB), the nation’s largest diverse and inclusive entrepreneurship school and coworking space, and The Iron Yard, the nation’s largest code school, are partnering to create Opportunity Code & Cofounders College (O.C3). Their first act is to provide $60,000 in scholarships to increase diversity in tech and tech enabled industries, particularly for men and women of color from underrepresented communities.
Access to opportunity, particularly within the technology ecosystem, isn’t always created equal. According to a 2014 USA Today article by Jessica Guynn and Elizabeth Weise, the technology industry’s predominantly white and Asian male workforce is in danger of losing touch with the diverse nation – and world – that forms its customer base. Recently released numbers from some of the largest and most powerful companies confirm what many had suspected: Blacks and Hispanics are largely absent, and women are underrepresented in Silicon Valley – from giant companies to startup-ups to venture capital firms.
Code.org predicts that there will be one million (1,000,000) more computing jobs than computing science students by 2020. O.C3 was created to address this talent deficiency head on.
“Realizing that the widening racial wealth and income gap may exclude some of our nation’s brightest talent from participating in the thriving tech economy, we reached out to the Iron Yard to create the partnership and combined curriculum,” says Rodney Sampson, Founder & CEO, Opportunity Hub, “The Iron Yard immediately stepped up to partner and provide the initial partial scholarships which will help to close the gap of students who might not be able to afford the cost of a reputable code school education.”
The Iron Yard teaches intensive, immersive 12-week courses that mentor students into professional junior-level programmers. The program goes far beyond tactical skills and teaches students how to think like software engineers. The Iron Yard has a phenomenal success rate in its career support program, helping students find all types of work in the tech industry.
Upon or during initial job placement, Opportunity Hub will teach students the ins and outs of the innovation, entrepreneurship and investment ecosystem via a 6-month weekly pre-accelerator curriculum that takes students on a navigated journey from ideation to market. The curriculum teaches entrepreneurial mindsets, ideation, customer discovery, business model generation, business planning, entrepreneurial fundamentals, access to capital and pitching.
“Programming is a lifelong study, and our process shows students how to learn so they’ll remain highly valuable for the rest of their career – whether they are working for a company or starting their own. To this end, the Iron Yard is excited to partner with Opportunity to make learning to code accessible for all, particularly underrepresented communities,” says Peter Barth, CEO, The Iron Yard.
During this year’s SXSW, Sampson and Barth announced the scholarship initiative at OHUB’s Innovator’s Dinner sponsored by The District of Columbia’s Washington DC Economic Partnership. An expansion to DC is in the works.
“This initiative creates high tech software engineering jobs immediately; and develops the technical cofounding talent required to have a diverse and inclusive technology and/or technology-enabled startup ecosystem. It goes well beyond the premise of exposing minorities to STEM. This is modern day economic and community development in action,” concludes Sampson.
To learn more or apply, visit www.opportunityhub.com/code
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