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Facebook Invests $1 Million in CodePath to Improve CS Education

Today, we’re excited to announce that Facebook has invested $1 Million in CodePath to help us expand from serving 400 students to over 1,000 per semester in the next year. The funding will also allow us to create courses that target underrepresented minorities and women during their freshman year and expand our number of college partners.

In the past year, we have seen college faculty embrace our curriculum with over 23 universities including Mississippi State, Howard, and Purdue now hosting CodePath.org courses on campus for academic credit to expose students to real world coding challenges. This gives students the relevant skills that major tech companies and other CodePath.org hiring partners are looking for.

Why We Need to Change College Computer Science

Facebook, Google, and other tech giants have made some progress in diversifying their workforce. They readily acknowledge they have much more work to do. As the demands for entry-level computer science graduates continually shift, we know that all students will benefit from a curriculum that is developed in conjunction with working professionals in the field.

We believe one of the ways we can make a significant impact is making our computer science programs more supportive for underrepresented groups. Outside of technical skills, it’s also important to help students prepare for the technical interview process. We also know that internships are critical to success, so we are focused on helping students from underrepresented communities land and keep these opportunities.

We Focus on Multi-faceted Student Support

We believe in deeply supporting students and faculty to bring a more personalized learning experience to higher education. CodePath.org courses are taught on-campus over 12-weeks requiring 150+ hours to complete. During courses, students access rich supplementary learning materials, videos, guides, and content, as well as receive 24/7 online support and grading from CodePath.org. After courses, students are matched to internships based on their course performance. We focus on removing much of the administrative and grading burden from instructors while also elevating the quality of student personalization and support.

CodePath.org also offers multi-year course series to impact student achievement over the long term. Courses range from practical, project-based courses like iOS and Cybersecurity to courses focused on reinforcing Computer Science fundamentals and preparing for technical interviews.

Facebook/CodePath Partnership Goals

In the past three years, over 1,700 students from over 30 colleges and universities have taken CodePath courses. In the next year, Facebook will enable CodePath to quadruple the number of students taught per semester.

We are incredibly excited that this partnership will build the foundation for our shared long-term goals:

  • Broaden the funnel of new students from underrepresented communities who are interested in majoring in computer science
  • Decrease attrition for underrepresented students that enter the major
  • Bridge the gap between traditional computer science curriculum and practical software engineering job responsibilities
  • Cultivate a bigger pipeline of underrepresented software engineers

If you are a student, or a professor, who wants to learn more about bringing CodePath.org courses to your campus, reach out to us here.

If you are a company interested in sponsoring our programs or becoming a hiring partner, email us at sponsorship@codepath.org for more information.

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