All Star Code’s “Summer Intensive” summer program (held in NYC and Pittsburgh) helps teach students about entrepreneurship, game design, computer science and web development over a six-week period — for free. ASC’s mission is to increase diversity in STEM and help young boys of color join careers in the field, and Black Enterprise announced this month that the organization successfully raised more than $1 million to further this mission.
ASC hopes to educate 10,000 young men of color by 2022. Already in the past five years, it has educated around 300 students in the summer programs. As a result, 95 percent of those graduates have attended four-year colleges and half of them have started a business or tech project.
According to the website, the program is open to current male high school sophomores and juniors who are able to commute to the host cities daily. Preference is given to black and Latino applicants, and no coding experience is necessary to be accepted.
This year, ASC received almost 1,000 applicants for the 160-spot program.
“Tech is one of the most influential and lucrative industries, so it’s vital that Black and Latino young men are better represented in this space to capture its economic opportunity,” said Christina Lewis, ASC founder.
