The beginning of the near year means a fresh start for our Futures Fund program. There will be some new additions as well as returning favorites to help lift our students to achieve their tech goals. Leading the charge is Program Director Dominique Dallas.
“The goal is to extract that tech genius in people by showing them that coding can really be their superpower,” says Dallas.
Coding Bootcamp
For adults, the Coding Bootcamp is back in session and it's time to get coding! There are plenty of exciting new things in store.
“This semester is going to be a little different because they are going to be more activities and opportunities to co-work,” Dallas explains. “We are reintroducing participation in the Slack channel so each cohort member can interact with each other, ask for help, and ask questions. We don’t want them to feel like they are on an island.”
Related Story: Futures Fund Coding Boot Camp Fall 2022 Capstone
Physical world meet-ups are also on the agenda.
“We want to activate the idea of meeting up at a coffee shop and working on a project together.”
Building comradery will go a long way toward enhancing the learning environment. After all, code is just to the beginning of what’s being offered.
“We want to make sure people are creating those lifelong and lasting relationships with people that are interested in the field, so they can network and develop those soft skills.”
Learning from those already working in the industry has always been a priority for CBC. Guest speakers join the class once a week to talk about their experiences in the industry. Additionally, there will be a focus on how to get the job you want and get paid what you deserve.
“I have a speaker who is really skilled at how to negotiate your salary and how to be a badass in an interview. We’re going to really focus on career skills and navigating the career space. The springtime is a really good time to talk about career skills because that’s when a lot of employers are looking for new talent.”
If you’ve ever been interested in learning how to code, now is the time!
Tech Academy
Giving teens a sense of power and purpose has always been the focus of the Tech Academy. This semester there will be a combination of virtual and physical workdays.
“This is a really strong and exciting program,” Dallas says with pride. “We have some great guest speakers lined up for the semester. One, whose name I’m not going to mention just yet, is an entrepreneur, a coder, and she designs children’s books.”
Related Story: Fall 2022 Tech Academy Capstone
The program has two specialty areas: photography and coding. Both programs teach teens skills as well as practical applications.
"This semester we're allowing mentorship to existing at every level of the program," Dallas notes. "It's a really strong aspect of the program."
An event that compliments the mentorship agenda is SQL Saturday, which “was a hit last year.”
"SQL stands for Structured Query Language, which is hard to manage data and databases. SQL Saturday is a day of free training to support the platform while providing an opportunity to network and nerd out with other techies!"
This year the event will be held on Saturday, March 18 at LSU. It is hosted by BRAIN (Baton Rouge Analytics and Intelligence Network). The focus this year is business intelligence.
“It all goes back to getting the trainees involved in the tech community.”
If you are the parents of a teen who might be interested in either the photography or coding portion of the Tech Academy, fill out the registration form now!