You could say Matt Stephenson is “banking” on helping change the game when it comes to giving underrepresented students opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math -- or STEM.
The Wharton MBA grad is the founder of Code2College, and one of the nominees for Austin Inno’s 50 on Fire award nominees. The real question, though, is: Why did he trade Excel spreadsheets and Bloomberg terminals in the Big Apple for STEM education in the Live Music Capital?
“I loved banking, but I’ve always been passionate about education,” Stephenson said. “After banking, I worked for a New York nonprofit focused on placing students of color into front office roles -- I placed people in Goldman, Deutsche Bank, UBF and other. What I wanted to figure out was how I could bring this to students who might not apply to college or at risk of dropping out?”
After teaching high school math, and then moving to Austin two and a half years ago to teach at KIPP public schools, Stephenson saw opportunity. In 2016 he came up with Code2College, with a mission to increase the amount of underserved students and minorities in technical careers.
How It Works
The Code2College platform relies heavily on volunteers. Stephenson recruited employees from companies like Facebook, Intel, Atlassian, RetailMeNot and others. The volunteers teach handpicked students how to code twice a week during the school year.
The difference between Code2College and other programs? A professor in a Code2College class only speaks for 7 minutes, while building a technical project for the other 53 minutes of class.
The program also has a networking component, designed to get students face time with some of the top minds in Austin tech. Every month, students are taken to corporate offices of various Austin tech companies. Half of their meeting focuses on personal development issues like how to conduct interviews or elevator pitches. For the other half of the meeting, students focus on a particular problem in that company's’ industry.
“When we went to Q2Ebanking, the students were working on a financial based problem. With RetailMeNot, it was product offers, and when we met with Silicon Labs, we worked on semiconductors,” Stephenson said.
Once students complete the Code2College program, they have two enticing paid options: They can either work on projects in a web development role; or they can go for a corporate internship.
“Last year we partnered with Indeed for our corporate internship and it was the first time they hired a high school intern,” he said. “Luckily, she received an offer to come back this summer, too.”
How It Works
To qualify for the program, students are required to fill out an online application. The application focuses on students’ desire to participate, motivation, and some of the challenges they’ve faced throughout their lives. Last year, Code2College had close to 90 applicants for only 20 spots, and this year the goal is to increase the size of the class to 120.
With regards to the internships, only the top 10 percent of the class gets to work at a corporate internship, while the others build websites for companies.
Commitment from Across the Board
The board of Code2College includes several well-known names in the Austin tech scene, and each member has played a hand in getting Code2College off the ground.
Kathleen Overly, Stephenson’s wife, is a former attorney and holds a doctorate in student affairs.
“She provides Code2College with support on programmatic and strategic issues for students being that she is well-versed in the undergraduate and graduate buckets of academic,” Stephenson said.
Ashley Finch (Leanin.org) is the number two person in the LeanIn organization to Sheryl Sandberg, while Jeanine Henry is a Senior Manager at Facebook. Keivon Liburd is connected to the organization My Brother’s Keeper locally, while Stephenson credits Neha Bajaj with securing Code2College’s 501c3 designation. The newest board member is Jonathan Kanarek, the COO of Buildfax, which was the first company to sign on for Code2College’s data science internship.
Growth
Despite Stephenson being the only employee at Code2College, the organization has grown quickly. Stephenson said two more companies are signing on soon, as well.
While the organization is only in Austin now, the goal by 2021 is national expansion. Stephenson is looking at Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. But the order in which he expands depends on which companies in the community sign on fastest.
Being the only employee has its challenges. The biggest, according to Stephenson, is just securing that one foot in the door to a variety of companies in Austin. Not only that, but Stephenson is actively soliciting corporate sponsors and corporate companies for Code2College to partner with.
While much of the organization’s funding comes from individual donors, Stephenson also sources grants from foundations, and, in October, is holding a month-long fundraiser to grow the company. The program also has a tax-deductible sustainability fee that they negotiate with companies they place interns at, which helps mitigate expenses.
After raising money, hiring is the next step for Stephenson. He is currently looking for a part-time operations manager, and in 2018, plans to bring on 1 or 2 program managers.
