At Capital One headquarters in McLean, Va. last night, middle schoolers who participated in the banking company's C1 Coders' program got two surprises that left them speechless: A visit from "The Big Bang Theory" star Mayim Bialik and brand new HP laptops.
The 10-week program pulls about 90 middle school students from four Fairfax County Public Schools—Glasgow Middle, Poe Middle, Kilmer Middle and Cooper Middle—to learn about software engineering. For their final projects, which were presented at last night's event, students developed their own unique apps using the MIT App Inventor 2 technology.
It was during the program's ceremony last night when Bialik, who not only plays a scientist on the CBS show but is also a neuroscience in the real world, made a surprise appearance and spoke with them about the importance of having coding skills.
Loved being @CapitalOne 's C1 Coders event! The @YourFutureEdge program helps kids develop an interest in STEM early :) #investedintech #ad pic.twitter.com/Kcxsq5gbrV
— Mayim Bialik (@missmayim) December 16, 2016
The C1 Coders program is a part of Capital One's $150 million Future Edge effort, which aims to create programs to prepare people with the skills needed in the 21st-century workforce. The C1 Coders program has been going since 2014 when it first launched in the company's Richmond offices. Now, they've educated over 500 students in McLean alone. The company is also looking to partner with more schools in the county and across the country, including a pilot Spanish-speaking program happening right now in Plano, Texas.
Capital One's Vice President of Technology Jen Manry told DC Inno in an interview after the event that middle school is the perfect age group for this program.
"We picked that as a sweet spot from an age group perspective where we feel like there's a natural curiosity and the ability to learn and pick up the skills relatively easily," Manry said.
Which is why Capital One decided to give their students free laptops at the end of the program. This way they have a guaranteed place where they can continue to explore their new coding skills and curiosity, especially when, as Manry says, the workforce needs more people with those abilities.
"Our future workforce will really be required to have technology skills and some sort of STEM-related experience to get into those jobs," Manry said. "For us, it's really important to start cultivating those skills."
Image courtesy of Capital One.
