Code for Fun

Created by a former Facebook executive, Code for fun focuses on exposing as many children as possible, as early as possible to computer science. The market segments we address are:

-        education

-        non-profit

-        hi-tech

The jobs offerings requiring Computer Science expertise increase 3 times faster than the number of students graduating with a computer science degree in USA. US Department of Labor predicted 1 million jobs vacant requiring computer science expertise by 2020 due to the lack of engineers in that field. By exposing the students earlier to the field, Code for fun expects to increase the number of students interested in pursuing a CS degree in the future.

There is a gender gap and economic means gap in the Computer Science engineering field, due to stereotypes and lack of exposure. 17% of CS engineers are women, and the pipeline is small because only 20% of the students pursuing a CS degree in college are women. Code for fun wants to shift the balance by exciting the students at a much younger age (60% of students in our programs are girls)

By delivering 50% of our instruction for free in communities with fewer resources, we try to address the economic disparity seen in the background of CS engineers

Code for fun is also trying to educate children and young adults about the increasingly electronically connected world we live in. We use computing devices and rely on these devices for work, homework, communication, to make decisions but we are not taught in school how these devices work. Understanding basic computer science concepts is essential to be successful in the 21st century. Our goal is to fulfill this educational gap and at the same time support schools to teach Computer Science as part of their curriculum, by offering after school programs, summer camps and by training teachers and volunteers to teach in classrooms.

The organization is just 2 years old but we recorded 10X growth from the first year to the second:

• In 2015, we had 48% of girls students and 33% of our instruction was delivered for free
• We are now teaching students from 5 to 15 years old and 22% of our instruction is during the school time, 65% during camps.
• We now have 8 different camp offerings. In summer 2015, we held 24 camps during the summer as opposed to 1 in summer 2014
• We offered 6 weeks of free summer camps in the Belle Haven community of Menlo Park to expose more than 50 students to computer science. We tool them on field trips and provided free lunch and snacks.

Next year, we would like to launch Computer Science Continuous Learning (CSCL) program where, with help of volunteers during the year, each child can receive 10 hours of computer science instruction during the school year. Code for fun will provide a ready to teach curriculum for grades K-8 and volunteers training. We estimated the cost of this program to be $35 per student. 

Help us reach to as many students as possible. With a donation of $140, you will enable 4 students to be part of this program.