Liberal arts colleges to offer coding camp during winter break
INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — Eleven Fifty Academy has forged an agreement with seven liberal arts colleges and universities to offer an intensive computer coding program during the extended holiday break for college students.
The pandemic forced colleges to adjust their calendars, including an early start to the semester and wrapping up finals in late November, instead of December.
The course will be taught virtually, designed to be completed during the break between Thanksgiving and the start of the spring semester in January.
“At Wabash, we will end on November 24. That’s when the last classes and finals will end. Then we’re sending people home for nearly nine weeks of winter break. So, we need to find a way to keep them engaged,” said Roland Morin, associate dean at Wabash College.
In addition to Wabash, Butler University, DePauw University, Earlham College, Marian University, St. Mary’s College at Notre Dame, and the University of Evansville are taking part in the program called the Winter Coding Experience.
The program is geared towards juniors and seniors who attend traditional liberal arts colleges and are not pursuing computer science or STEM undergraduate degrees.
“Liberal arts colleges turn out well-rounded students who are great learners, excellent problem solvers, and quality citizens,” said Morin. “But there’s always this little bit of a gap of students actually having an understanding of technology and how technology works.”
For instance, Morin says students who may be earning a business degree could benefit from having a grasp of how computer coding works.
“It’s not for the faint of heart,” said Eleven Fifty Academy founder Scott Jones.
He says the intensive five-week course will include 30-hour weeks and will focus on the coding languages of Python and Javascript. Jones says the nonprofit coding academy adjusted its curriculum to fit the needs of the seven schools.
“These people are not going to walk out and immediately and get software development jobs, because it’s not our full 12-week or 24-week program,” said Jones. “But I do think that having learned these languages and been exposed in the ways that we will expose them, it will serve them well, whether they do product management or project management or CEO of a startup.”
The registration deadline is November 13. Morin says the career services o?ces within each school has more information for their students.