In the News

Code2College hosted a summit for Black and Latina high school girls, where they had opportunity to pitch business ideas to five women executives working for Meta, Google, WPEngine, and other companies.

Bank of America Corp. shared that it funneled more than $32.5 million in 2022 to Central Texas organizations dedicated to supporting economic mobility.

For most kids, a casual summer job might involve working the checkout at a local supermarket. Or perhaps a stint as a camp counselor. It’s not often you’d hear a teenager say, “I’ve got a software engineering internship at a global tech company.”

Code2College is an economic empowerment, college access and workforce development program that recruits volunteers from the Tech community to deliver a high-touch program model.

Even in a city overflowing with tech profits and tech talent, pockets of Austin lack access to the technology and connectivity many take for granted. Code2College is a leading example of an organization trying to reduce disparities in tech.

One of our favorite partnerships is with Code2College, where we host high school engineering interns each summer. Just this week, we heard from one of last summer’s interns, who shared the list of top-rated universities he’d been accepted to.

This past summer, Maria Contreras found herself putting her new skills [from Code2College] to use at Indeed, the job recruitment platform. At age 17, she was a high schooler working side-by-side with college interns and getting paid.

Coding is about collaboration and helping society through creative problem-solving. That’s the lesson that high school students are getting through Code2College.

VIDEO: The Austin-based group Code2College is making sure students from all backgrounds are prepared for careers in the tech field.

Code2College started with 30 Austin students from Akins High School and the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders. Of those working after school with volunteer coaches, 70 percent were girls, 80 percent African American or Hispanic.

“Our pitch to schools: Are you interested in your students, particularly your low-income students, girls and students of color entering STEM fields and learning from experts?” [Matt Stephenson] says. "That's what we're here to do."