Codestarter partners with organizations who teach programming to kids (ages 7-17). We provide laptops and software in our Code Kits so that children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to participate can do so. Our partner organizations work with schools in underserved populations to identify high-potential students who are interested in learning to code but who don’t have their own computers. When a c
hild is recommended by a school sponsor and our partner organization, Codestarter adds her to our list of children and begins crowdfunding for her laptop. As a donor, you can give an entire laptop to a child or fund a percentage. You may make a one-time donation or subscribe and support a different child each month. Either way, you’ll receive a thank you card from the child who receives your gift, and we’ll keep you updated for the first year with quarterly reports on her progress as she learns to code. When a child successfully completes her first coding program, our partner organization and her school sponsor can recommend that she continue, and the laptop will be hers to keep! We believe that laptop ownership is powerful, and we want to empower young kids to be fearless in their pursuits of programming. It’s hard to become a hacker when you’re only working for an hour once a week on a borrowed piece of equipment! We track every child from the beginning. We also have two controls groups in place--one group who participates in coding classes but does not receive laptops, and a second group who neither receives laptops nor participates in coding classes. These controls are essential in order to study laptop ownership apart from classroom participation. Initial evaluations will occur quarterly for a participant’s first year, and then annually thereafter. Over time we hope to document the impact of giving a child her own laptop, in relation to the child’s life and the tech industry much later. We will be able to see who takes advanced placement exams in computer science, who majors in computer science in college, who graduates with a degree, who takes a first job in programming, who remains in the field for five years, who becomes an entrepreneur, and even who gets funded by VCs.
