Resilient Coders

I’m applying for the Elevate Prize so that I can expand the organization I founded, Resilient Coders, to cities across the US. We are a non-profit coding bootcamp that trains young adults of color for high-growth careers in software engineering and connects them with employment, but we are also a movement dedicated to tackling inequitable access to tech education and flipping the script on discriminatory and employer-centric hiring practices. 

Our results to date have honestly been extraordinary, and we’re about to launch ourselves into the national arena. As an organization, we are at a stage of tremendous potential, and we have a chance to fundamentally transform the way the US thinks about racial equity in education and economic opportunity. 

The Elevate Prize would propel our work in three fundamental ways:

• The funding means we would be able to establish bootcamps in multiple new cities.

• The visibility and attention a prize of this magnitude brings means we could make our vision and strategy an industry (and nation)-wide conversation.

• Finally, our goal is to work in coalition (and not competition) with other like-minded grassroots organizations, and the opportunity for me to connect with other founders and share ideas would be invaluable.

I founded Resilient Coders in 2014 in response to the lack of representation of people of color in the tech workforce, and to the dire economic situation for Boston’s communities of color. I’d been leading a team at PayPal, and starting using my vacation days to volunteer at a youth detention center, teaching coding; this evolved into an 8-week coding bootcamp. We now run two 20-week free bootcamps a year in Boston and Philadelphia.

Our goal is to create a world where a person’s race is no longer an inhibiting factor when entering the tech workforce. Together we can propel our “radical” ideas of free education and equitable pathways to prosperity into the mainstream. We can oppose oppressive income-sharing arrangements and predatory lending, convince employers that expensive degrees aren’t a prerequisite for highly skilled jobs, and collectively change the narrative among employers of what is and is not just. We can transform the workforce, and challenge the whiteness of the white-collar job. 

We will accomplish this by expanding our program to other mid-market cities with vibrant tech economies and sizable racial wealth gaps, beginning with Pittsburgh in fall 2021.

Communities of color in the US face an uncertain economic future, due largely to structured inequality in employment opportunities, creating an urgent need for equitable jobs that are future-oriented, resilient to labor market changes, and well-compensated. In response to this, Resilient Coders trains young adults of color from low-income communities for high-growth careers as software engineers and connects them with employment opportunities.

We already have a proven track record in Boston, where the net worth of White Bostonians as $247,500 and of Black Bostonians as $8. Philadelphia is our first target expansion city, and it is also profoundly impacted by the racialized wealth gap. Between 1970-2016, studies show that Philadelphia’s poverty rate grew by 10.3% as the national poverty rate remained largely unchanged. Hispanic people have the highest poverty rate in Philadelphia at 37.9%, followed by Black people at 30.8%. 

Our 20-week coding bootcamp is free to students, stipended, and centers on people of color. Employers pay a placement fee for each hire. And our model works – in spite of the pandemic and hiring freezes, the placement rate and average salary for our December 2020 graduates were 94% and $92.4k respectively. It’s time to scale this nationally.

High standards; low barriers. Our bootcamp is intense, demanding, and effective. There’s no entrance exam. We don’t consider college completion or grades. Students emerge with the skills for rewarding careers as high-level coders and not for IT help desks. We have an inclusive, dialectical pedagogy – unlike traditional models where instructors speak and students listen, we focus on discussion, co-learning, and experiences. 

Vision. We are overcoming a minefield of systemic obstacles to ensure that Black and Latinx people can access careers commensurate with their level of skill. Our vision of the future is one where a coalition of organizations like ours, led by people of color, for people of color, have moved tech company culture towards equitable employment practices. We are expanding as a movement, not a proprietary entity, to unite around shared principles, provide jobs for Black and Latinx young adults, and raise the bar for employers – together.

 Radically free. Our program is FREE. Students pay no tuition, and receive stipends for living expenses. There are no income-sharing arrangements. Our alumni use their salaries to provide for their families and communities, not to pay us back. The solution to a racialized national debt crisis cannot be more debt.

We are fighting the racial wealth gap and making low-income communities of color more resilient to economic changes by creating inclusive pathways to software engineering. Our bootcamp creates employment opportunities that lead to community investment and to a more diverse and equitable tech economy. Some of our metrics:

Placement rates and wages. We maintain an 85%+ placement rate and $98k average starting salary. In spite of the pandemic and employer hiring freezes in Boston, the placement rate for our December 2020 students was 94% with a salary of $92.4k. 

Economic impact on communities. Our graduates spend much of their money in Black and Brown neighborhoods. In 2019 in Boston they spent $3.1M per year hyper-locally before the bootcamp and $7.8M per year afterward; overall we have contributed a net $6M+ value add to the Massachusetts economy. If we meet our expansion goals, we will have helped inject nearly a billion dollars into communities of color by 2025.

Changing the face of tech. 100% of our graduates are people of color, all of them are from low-income backgrounds, none of them have prior professional experience as coders, and the vast majority of them have no college degree.