MIAMI – July 28, 2015 – Wyncode Academy, a coding bootcamp that empowers students through data-driven educational programs and business skills training, today announced it will provide scholarships to nine Miami-Dade County residents from low-income neighborhoods. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is investing $75,000 to fund the scholarships.
Related Link
“Wyncode Academy scholarships open doors to underserved Miami-Dade residents” – press release, 7/28/15
Recipients of the Future Leaders of Tech scholarships will be enrolled in a nine-week, Wyncode Academy cohort at its Miami campus, which is located within The LAB Miami. Wyncode’s coding bootcamps are focused on project-based learning and promote hands-on education that strengthens students’ analytical thinking, business acumen and technical skills as they learn to build full stack Web applications.
“Our mission at Wyncode is to give anyone the skills and tools to begin a career in coding,” said Wyncode Academy co-founder Juha Mikkola. “Deciding on a coding bootcamp that will propel you into a new career is a huge decision on its own; figuring out how to pay for a bootcamp adds another layer to the search. We hope that the Future Leaders of Tech scholarships scholarships, provided by Knight Foundation, will help ease the burden for an underrepresented community in Miami tech and enable us to extend this opportunity to members of our community who lack the means, but certainly not the passion and drive, to follow their dreams and learn to code.”
Wyncode aims to close the technology education gap among low-income neighborhoods across Miami. As a result, Wyncode hopes to play a part in diversifying the community of active entrepreneurs in Miami and introduce local residents to technology career paths.
“The future growth of Miami’s innovation ecosystem relies on the ability to build a community of entrepreneurs that reflects the diversity of our city,” said Matt Haggman, Miami program director for Knight Foundation. “Wyncode is giving South Florida residents the skills they need to not only learn how to code, but to engage in their community and contribute to the success of their city.”
Support for Wyncode Academy is part of Knight Foundation’s efforts to invest in Miami’s emerging innovators and entrepreneurs as a tool to build community, while fostering talent and expanding economic opportunity. Over the past three years, Knight has made more than 100 investments in entrepreneurship in South Florida.
For more information on Wyncode Academy, visit wyncode.co.
About Wyncode Academy
Wyncode Academy is South Florida’s first bricks-and -mortar coding academy and the first coding bootcamp accredited by the Florida Department of Education’s Commission for Independent Education. Wyncode believes in a disruptive education model that is not based on offering certificates but rather the flexibility of being independent and constantly improving our offering to provide a learning experience unlike any other.
For more information on Wyncode Academy, visit wyncode.co/futureleaders.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.
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Contacts:
David Barkoe, Carve Communications, 917-359-7222, [email protected]
Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, Knight Foundation, 305-908-2677, [email protected]