Kaufman Foundation grants $330,000 to Code2040 program
As CODE2040 begins recruiting computer engineering students for its 2013 summer Fellows Program, its efforts will be bolstered by a $330,000 grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The Kauffman Foundation has announced a two-year matching grant to the new San Francisco-based nonprofit organization. CODE2040 matches high-performing computer engineering students from colleges and universities around the country, including those from African-American and Latino populations, with Silicon Valley startups for hands-on summer fellowships. The goal is to inspire and encourage these students, who are underrepresented in high-tech startups, to consider working for a young company upon graduation or even starting their own.
CODE2040 launched its pilot fellows program in summer 2012. Five computer engineering students from Carnegie-Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and State University of New York recently completed their fellowships at Tumblr, Jawbone, RockMelt, Circle and Nutrivise.
“We received very positive feedback from all five companies who participated in our pilot program, as well as from the dozens of speakers, mentors and others with whom the students interacted,” said Laura Weidman Powers, CODE2040’s executive director. “The students learned so much and told us they now feel integrated into the Silicon Valley culture and excited to start companies of their own one day. We’re eager to grow this program.”
CODE2040 will be on-site at this week’s TechCrunch Disrupt 2012 conference to begin recruiting more Silicon Valley tech startups to host students for next summer’s program. Shortly after, CODE2040 representatives will begin visits to approximately 20 college campuses for its 2013 student recruitment campaign. Weidman Powers said the organization also intends to remotely reach out to another 25 to 30 colleges.
