Empowering future generations to build on the successes of those before them, is what makes our country great. That empowerment comes through education and a willingness to nurture the curiosity, diversity, and intelligence of our nation’s children. As the Institute for Education embarks on its 25th year, we are very proud to be leading that charge along with one of the great institutions of higher education, the University of Southern California (USC).
The CS@SC Summer Camps were founded in 2015 by The Institute for Education (IFE) in partnership with Prof. Jeffrey Miller of the Viterbi School of Engineering at USC. Now in its second summer, the camp has educated 495 K-12 students in computer science languages such as Scratch, Java, and Python.
The camp focuses on attracting females, under-represented ethnicities, and low-income families, all of which have disproportionately low numbers in the STEM fields. This is where the camp truly shines:
- 43% of the camp’s attendees were females, more than twice the national average (18.6%) of females in STEM programs
- Nearly 65% of the attendees were from minority ethnicities
- The camp more than doubled in size from the previous summer
On top of these metrics, nearly half of the students were able to attend the camp for FREE thanks to the operating model and the support from our generous sponsors. IFE believes that there are future leaders and innovators in every neighborhood, of each gender, and from every ethnicity. The CS@SC Camp provides a vessel for kids to follow their passion and help ensure the opportunity to learn computer science is available to any child with a desire to pursue it.
A special thanks to all of the camp counselors who worked with the kids on a daily basis, Professor Miller for his dedication and leadership, and Dean Yannis Yortsos for continuing to expand the reach and impact of STEM fields at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Through remarkable partnerships such as this one, IFE remains dedicated to empowering the global leaders of tomorrow.
Contributed by IFE Fellow Brandon Kline
