50 High School Students To Put Programming Skills to the Test in ScriptEd's December Hackathon

Online, November 18, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Fifty high school students from across New York City have been honing their computer programming skills all semester in classes taught by ScriptEd. On Saturday, December 14 they will put these skills to the test in an all-day Hackathon, held at Teach for America's Offices at 315 West 36th Street.

From 10:30 am to 7:30 pm these students, paired with mentors from the tech industry, will work in teams to collaboratively envision and then create programs that fit into a provided theme. ScriptEd's December Hackathon is sponsored by Neosavvy, Mozilla, Teach for America, Twilio, and Github.

Twilio, a cloud communications company, and Github, a web-based hosting service for software development projects, will both demo their products and mentor student teams as they work on their projects.

Many of ScriptEd's students had never taken a computer programming class before enrolling with ScriptEd in September. Akilah Gill, a senior at Richard Green High School, said that she enrolled in ScriptEd because, "I am aware of how dominant technology is in the 21st century, and I want to be able to keep up with a generation that is all things technology."

ScriptEd is a nonprofit that works to increase access to careers in technology by offering computer-programming classes in low-income high schools. Classes are taught on a volunteer basis by professional software developers. Over the summer, ScriptEd students are linked with paid internships where they gain professional experience in coding.

At the end of each semester, students participate in a program-wide Hackathon, competing with other teams for prizes in categories like "Most Technical Concepts Incorporated" and "Crowd Pleaser." Prizes will also be awarded for the best overall projects.

"I am very excited about the Hackathon," said Lilibeth Perez, a senior at Harlem Village Academy who plans to major in computer science in college. "Last year my team's project won Best Use of Meme."

"At the Hackathon, our students demonstrate their creativity," said ScriptEd Executive Director Maurya Couvares, "They have the ideas and the imagination to be drivers of innovation, but many of our students have never had the opportunity to learn computer science. Learning to program equips them with the skills and resources they need to pursue a technology career."

"Our students passively use technology all the time, but by learning to code they realize that they can be creators and innovators," said ScriptEd Education Manager Becca Novak. "I can't wait to see what they create at the Hackathon."

ScriptEd is a NYC-based start up nonprofit that immerses low-income students in the technology industry through rigorous web development courses at their schools, engaging field trips to prominent technology firms, and intensive full-time summer internships with industry partners. For more information, visit http://www.ScriptEd.org