For the fifth year, we are proud to support Code Nation by offering teaching, leadership and financial contributions. This partnership is one of LaunchDarkly’s longest running with a non-profit organization and our most comprehensive.
Code Nation is a nonprofit organization that operates in NYC, Chicago, and the Bay Area. Their mission is to “equip students in under-resourced high schools with the skills, experiences, and connections that together create access to careers in technology.”
This post details some of the work we’ve done with Code Nation so far, and what has driven and sustained the relationship so well.
How we partner with Code Nation
LaunchDarkly’s ties to Code Nation are deep and multifaceted:
Teaching
- Employees teach Code Nation classes (more on that below) from September to May each year.
- LaunchDarkly hosts (and pays) Code Nation interns during the summers.
Leadership
- Our co-founders, Edith Harbaugh (CEO) and John Kodumal (CTO), have been judges for Code Nation’s hackathons.
- John Kodumal is on Code Nation’s Bay Area leadership council.
Donations
- LaunchDarkly financially contributes to Code Nation via our non-profit, the LaunchDarkly Foundation.
- Employees contribute to Code Nation individually (independent of the LaunchDarkly Foundation's contribution), and LaunchDarkly matches those contributions up to $400 annually.
Education and focus
The core of LaunchDarkly’s involvement with Code Nation is education. Students at participating high schools opt in to the program, which has three parts:
- Foundations - An introduction to programming featuring basic engineering concepts like HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
- Fellowship 1 - An intermediate course covering functions and data types.
- Fellowship 2 - A project-based, more advanced course that covers React, JSX, and allows students to build a portfolio for their college applications.
LaunchDarkly employees have taught all of these classes at participating schools, in LaunchDarkly’s offices and, ever since Covid, over Zoom (😭). Employees have been able to share their expertise and teach students from a practitioner’s standpoint, helping the students understand both the concepts and the real-world application.
In addition to teaching classes, LaunchDarkly employees also help students with their portfolios and prepare them for interviews. They give students insight into the life of a developer, and show the pathway to become one.
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Conclusion
This partnership started with me volunteering to teach Code Nation students in 2017, and has since blossomed into an organization-wide relationship.
Personally, I’m proud of LaunchDarkly’s commitment to both the individual students and Code Nation overall.
Students have learned the tenets of software development, gained valuable skills as interns and continued their studies at the collegiate level.
Software engineering jobs are keys to a prosperous future, and I’m glad that LaunchDarkly and Code Nation are working together to extend these opportunities to everyone.
LaunchDarkly is proud to be apart of the Pledge 1% community and encourages other companies to take the pledge and leverage their business as a force for good.
