PreparationTech Selects Five High School Students for CODAM summer scholarship

Making the tech industry more diverse and inclusive is a slow and labourious process. But it's definitely worth doing.

Which is why PreparationTech was thrilled when CODAM approached us to collaborate on a new initiative to recruit older high school aged kids to complete its 'Intro to Coding' summer program.

CODAM offers software engineering education in a new and innovative way: there are no teachers, no semesters and no formal classrooms. Instead, the experience focuses on self-directed and peer-to-peer learning.

Students follow online videos to complete assignments which gradually increase in difficulty. Need help? Ask a fellow student. Need more information? Use YouTube, Google, ChatGPT or CODAM's Slack channels. CODAM coaches will be present to guide students through the process, answer questions and solve any problems that they encounter. The experience is largely based on the effort and focus that students put into the program.

PreparationTech was asked to recruit five, older high school aged teens to complete CODAM's 'Piscine Scholarship', a four-week, highly-intensive period during which participants engage in programming activities. The scholarship is the first of its kind and is specifically for young people from groups under-represented in the tech industry (non-white, female and/or living in low income communities). Scholarship awardees will receive a weekly stipend to alleviate financial concerns so that they can dedicate themselves 100% to completing the program.

We selected the winners based on strong recommendations from teachers and mentors, answers on an application form and one-to-one interviews in which the teens outlined their interest in technology and self-directed learning and explained how the scholarship fits into their future study and career goals.

The lucky winners are: 

• Shakira Y. who is thrilled to complete the program because the course she started at her high school was cancelled because the teacher left
• Melchizedek O. M. who is interested in a career in cybersecurity
• Anita M. who plans to use the experience to test her interest in pursuing IT studies
• Jude F. who is taking advanced math and is interested in a career which combines technology and math
• Tuğba I. N. who has taught herself coding through YouTube videos and who wants to resume the IT education she began in her home country

Deborah Carter, PreparationTech's Managing Director, says: "While many in the tech community claim to care about diversity and inclusion, CODAM is walking the walk. Corinne Vigreux, Carlo Wesseling and the rest of the team have demonstrated a commitment to investing in young talent. High school students from low-income backgrounds deserve the same exposure and opportunities as others and this summer scholarship is a great step in the right direction."

A big THANKS to CODAM for its generosity and commitment to nurturing the next generation of diverse and inclusive tech talent in the Netherlands.