For nearly a decade, NewBoCo has been offering tech education programs for all ages within our building, working with over 900 students and adults each year.
Now we’re making more of an effort to bring those programs out into the community, too. We have learned that the community loves and benefits from our programs, but due to real and perceived barriers, not everyone interested can come to us.
In one week, we held CoderDojo in the Wellington Heights neighborhood, a Coffee + Code gathering at Feedwell Kitchen and Bakery, and were at the Ladd Library in Cedar Rapids for Code 101.
“It just expands on what we’re doing here at NewBoCo, putting our programs in places where people want to access them,” says NewBoCo’s Melissa Silver.
At Wellington Heights Community Church, Pastor Keeyon Carter told us, “oftentimes, those innovative learning opportunities get passed up in under-resourced communities like Wellington Heights.” He’s been a welcoming host for CoderDojo events, and we’ve seen the impact our programs have on the young participants now enjoying STEM activities right in their neighborhood.
We see a lot of excitement and “a-ha” moments for students attending our programs. We encourage adults to stay with students during CoderDojo so that they can see for themselves the excitement their students have about drones, LEGO robots, and more.
Avoiding assumptions that our programs are “right” for a new community, our Student Programs Coordinator, Andy Fiedler, first ran a pilot in the Wellington Heights neighborhood to see how students responded. With a positive response and a plan to make some CoderDojo stations portable, we sought out a sponsor to cover staff time and replace and replenish materials that see heavy use. We found a receptive partner in Collins Aerospace, who has generously provided sponsorship to extend our impact.
NewBoCo has been helping adults explore software development careers since 2016 through the DeltaV Code School. This year our Director of Student Services, Melissa Silver, sought out community partners to host our introductory courses in spaces familiar and comfortable for people across our community. The daylong workshop allows people to get a taste for coding, try building their own website, and see if a career with programming could be right for them.
IowaWORKS and The Opportunity Center at Ladd Library are two of these locations. We’ve found that coding and software development can seem intimidating, so meeting people where they are already comfortable is one way to break down barriers and help people feel safe trying something new. We are so thankful for our hosts as well as sponsors, CCR, Leepfrog, Transamerica, City of Cedar Rapids, ImOn, and the Giacoletto Foundation.
For both existing people in technology and the technology-curious, we wanted to bring back some of the collaborative, community gatherings that existed a few years ago. NewBoCo created Coffee + Code, a free social event at Feedwell Kitchen and Bakery the second Saturday of each month. People are welcome to gather from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. to discuss hot topics like AI, ask questions, and meet other tech people in the corridor, no matter their level of experience.
NewBoCo programmer Robbie Nesmith, who often spends his Saturdays at Coffee + Code, says it’s important to meet people where they are for anyone wanting to make connections.
“We put a lot of focus on building community and having an opportunity where we can just go out there and talk to a bunch of different people, and have a different crowd every month,” he says.
Through these programs and more, NewBoCo is proud to be busting out of our walls and partnering to bring programs to more people. This summer we’ll be working with the Hiawatha Public Library to bring CoderDojo to their space. We also hope to do more with the Catherine McAuley Center in Cedar Rapids, which would allow us to help more people who are underrepresented in computer science and tech education.
If you know an area that would love to host NewBoCo programs, or if you’re able to sponsor expansion of our programs to even more people, please reach out to our Community Engagement Manager, Anthony Betters, at anthony@newbo.co. The more people we can reach, the more we can help to meet the need for computer science and tech education in our community.
Samantha Dahlby is the director of K12 Education for NewBoCo in Cedar Rapids. You can contact her at samantha@newbo.co.
