Over $30,000 in individual donations were raised for TechPoint Foundation for Youth to bring computer programming clubs for kids called “CoderDojos” to Indiana during the 17th annual TechPoint Mira Awards gala. Mira Awards presenting sponsors Angie’s List, Interactive Intelligence, and Salesforce matched those donations, resulting in a grand total of $60,000 in support.
Laura Dodds, executive director of the TechPoint Foundation for Youth, and John Qualls, president of Eleven Fifty Academy, announced the launch of CoderDojo Indiana, making Indiana the first state in the country to commit to providing all students access to computer programming clubs.
This statewide, regional partnership with CoderDojo is the first of its kind supporting the growth of the youth computer programming movement and TechPoint Foundation for Youth has already hired the staff to make it happen, which is also a nationwide first!
Eleven Fifty Academy, in response to the growing technology skills gap in Indiana, has partnered with TechPoint Foundation for Youth to educate schools and communities throughout the state about computer programming. Bringing their interactive, weeklong program, Cool Coding Awareness Week, into 20 cities, Eleven Fifty aims to foster students’ coding knowledge and to continue growing their coding interests.
To launch 20 CoderDojos, and outfit each of them, plus the ones already happening in our communities, with a set of loaner laptops to keep this program accessible to all Indiana students, TechPoint Foundation for Youth needed to raise $140,000. Prior to the Mira Awards, over half of that amount was raised, and thanks to the generosity of the Mira Awards presenting sponsors and the attendees, the program is now fully funded.
A special thanks goes to Indianapolis mobile technology company BidPal for providing the text-to-give donation platform.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sara Croft is content strategy and PR manager at TechPoint. She writes about Indiana tech companies, jobs, people and events. Reach out to Sara @saraelysecroft.