CodeNow Kicks Off National Coding Program with First Partner: Bloomberg

CodeNow, a nonprofit focused on teaching underrepresented youth to code, is announcing an exciting partnership with Bloomberg LP today, the first in a series of high-level collaborations that will bring its curriculum to thousands of students nationwide. As part of the partnership, CodeNow’s next NYC coding workshop will be powered by Bloomberg and led by the company’s technologists. The workshop will be based on CodeNow’s expert-developed educational curriculum to help local high-potential youth discover new computer-related interests, college degrees, and careers.
 
The partnership is part of “CodeNow in a Box”, a nationwide program designed by CodeNow that provides technology companies with the tools and curriculum to host their own computer programming workshops. This program aims to reach 10,000 students nationwide by 2020 and allows leading tech companies to give back to their communities, while cultivating a new passionate and diversified pool of technical talent for future generations of software engineers.
 
“Our partnership with Bloomberg began in 2013 when, with support from a grant, we expanded to New York City. We are thrilled to embark on this next leg with Bloomberg as they join us with CodeNow in a Box and look forward to developing this partnership to empower high school students across New York City with life-changing programming skills. We hope other companies follow suit to help us equip thousands of students around the nation with this valuable skillset" said Ryan Seashore, CEO of CodeNow.
 
“We rely heavily on our skilled technologists to power everything we do here at Bloomberg,” said Shawn Edwards, Chief Technology Officer at Bloomberg.  “We have a shared belief with CodeNow that developing these skills will help enhance the lives of the students who participate in the program. It also makes business sense, because as we continue to grow it will help us address our need for people with these highly coveted skill sets.”

CodeNow’s partnership is part of a larger effort by Bloomberg education engagement program called StartUp which exposes high school students to technical and leadership skills that support academic achievement and helps prepare students as they develop their college and career paths.By providing students who normally would not have access to computer science education with programming instruction, CodeNow’s program opens further career options for students, allowing them to pursue computer-related majors.  
 
2014 has been a marquee year for the 3-year-old CodeNow organization, registering 300 percent year-over-year growth, with over 50 percent of alumni as young women, and 75 percent of students receiving free or reduced-cost lunch. CodeNow currently has programs in New York City, San Francisco, and Miami, and plans to bring CodeNow in a Box to all of these major metropolitan areas. Bloomberg joins Y Combinator, Infor, the Kapor Center for Social Impact, Symantec, Knight Foundation, NewSchools Venture Fund, and many others to back CodeNow’s efforts to empower a new generation of students with in-demand coding skills.
 
Companies interested in hosting their own CodeNow trainings should contact  ryan@codenow.org  for more information.
 
About CodeNow
CodeNow was founded in 2011 with a mission of diversifying the talent pipeline of students who pursue computer science or technology. In pursuit of this mission, CodeNow began offering free out-of-school computer programming workshops in DC and has since expanded to NYC, the Bay Area, and Miami. In 2014 alone, CodeNow is on track to work with more than 500 students, which is a growth of over 300% from 2013. 75% of our students receive free or reduced-cost lunch, 50% of our alumni are young women, and over 90% express an interest in continuing to develop their programming skills upon completing the workshop.
 
About Bloomberg
Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The company’s strength – delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately – is at the core of the Bloomberg Professional service, which provides real time financial information to more than 320,000 subscribers globally

Contact Information

Kayvan Farzaneh

PR for CodeNow

CodeNow

kayvan@firstmoverstrategies.com