SCHOOL DESK

Hacking the code business

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When 16-year-old Acerlia Bennett talks about coding, she gets excited. And she starts talking really fast.

“It’s amazing how much you can accomplish by just doing pieces of code,” said Acerlia, who lives in Riverdale. “It’s something that looks really difficult but it’s not… anybody could do it.”

Acerlia, who attends The Cinema School on East 172nd Street, started coding in seventh grade. That’s when an organization called Code/Interactive, or C/I for short, came by her school to talk up a summer coding program.

“I didn’t have anything to do that summer, so I came in and I joined,” she recounted. “The next year, I went to the after-school, and it just continued.”

Founded in 2001, C/I aims to teach inner-city students how to code through after-school programs, supporting computer science education in schools and hackathons, events where people spend a frenzied day collaborating on tech projects.

C/I hosted its third hackathon of the year on Saturday at the Fordham Foundry, a tech incubator run by Fordham University and Small Business Services of the City of New York. Some big companies like FourSquare and Accrue stopped by to lead workshops, and the winning groups took home prizes including Chromebooks.

C/I has a big goal: break the cycle of poverty in urban areas by giving these students highly sought-after tech skills. 

“Tech is missing in schools right now, and it’s booming,” said Tom O’Connell, C/I’s program director, the day before the hackathon. “By 2020, there will be one million unfilled tech jobs that we just aren’t producing enough educated students to fill.”

Mr. O’Connell said C/I feels a responsibility for students in the Bronx.

“We have a higher unemployment rate here. We have a lower graduation rate at high schools,” he said. “And tech is one of those unique barrier industries where you don’t have to have a college degree to get into tech. You can learn how to code, you can go to a boot camp, you can teach yourself how to code, and get a $50-60,000 a year salary job.”

Acerlia Bennett, The Cinema School, Code/Interactive, Tom O'Connell, Bronx Science, Bronx Science Boulevard, School Desk, Isabel Angell
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