STEM

Monroe College Offers Coding Instruction to NYC Students

• By Rhea Kelly
• 05/11/16

In an effort to get students interested in coding and programming, New York's Monroe College is launching a free, 12-week summer Coding Academy at its Bronx campus. The program was created in part to support New York City's mandate to expand IT learning opportunities for high school students. (Last fall, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the Computer Science for All initiative, which calls for every K-12 public school in the city to provide computer science instruction by 2025.)

"Unfortunately, many of New York's high school students simply don't have the same IT-specific learning resources and opportunities in the classroom that many of their suburban peers do, which impedes their career ambitions in one of the fastest-growing sectors of our economy," said Stephen Jerome, president of Monroe College, in a statement. "We are proud to launch our new Coding Academy and provide students in the Bronx and elsewhere with the free, quality programming instruction that will help reverse that trend."

The Coding Academy is open to enrolled high school juniors and seniors with any level of coding experience and computer science knowledge. The college-level courses were "designed to accommodate the learning needs of beginners with no prior knowledge as well as those with more advanced coding skills eager to learn a new coding language," according to a press release. Students will choose either the Web Development track or the App Development track, and then work with their peers within each track on a group project. "The Web Development track will plan and build a completely functional website, while the App Development track will conceptualize and create a game" and submit it to the Apple and Google App Stores.

Coding Academy classes begin May 14. For information and registration, go to the Monroe College site.