Code Baltimore Wins Family League Grant
Cristata Cares is extremely excited to announce its newest program, Code Baltimore, has won a $30,000 grant from the Family League of Baltimore. Code Baltimore is a no-cost course to teach software development and computer science to underrepresented and marginalized communities in Baltimore City. Only 1 in 10 high schools in the United States teach any computer science material and, even within those that do offer courses, only 15% of students are women and 8% are people of color.
The support from organizations like the Family League allow Code Baltimore to offer truly no cost career catalyzation in one of the most lucrative and satisfying career paths - software development. Code Baltimore provides all instruction and materials for free, even providing MacBook Air laptops for each student to use throughout the course.
Code Baltimore's first set of classes will take place in Patterson High School, Douglass High, and Viven T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy starting mid-December. The initial class will teach iOS development and, by the end of the course, each student will have created six iPhone apps ranging from a tip calculator to an eBay type marketplace. Code Baltimore has hired Ian Han, a mobile developer and partner at Emerge Ventures, to lead the first class. "I'm extremely excited to be able to teach a new generation of developers and jumpstart careers in computer science", Han states, "Computer Science education is under taught, especially in low income areas. We can truly affect these students lives by providing opportunity they may not have had before."
Code Baltimore has published its first introductory book on the Swift programming language as a free download on their website and is offering all six app tutorials through their fundraiser. To support this project, consider donating at
Code Baltimore is a joint partnership program with Emerge Ventures, a startup venture capital fund and incubator in Baltimore.
