Capital One’s Plano campus recently hosted 32 girls from Girls Inc. Dallas to help them develop a greater interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). During the Capital One Coders Program, a group of 6th-9th grade Girls Inc. students were educated by Capital One Financial Services volunteers about software engineering and developing their own apps using MIT University’s App Inventor.
During the program, which is part of an ongoing series at Capital One, the girls were placed in groups, and each student was provided a laptop and tablet to better visualize how her created apps work firsthand. At the end of the three-week program, the students celebrated the completion of the program with final presentations for parents, teachers and Capital One associates to demonstrate the apps they created. Capital One associates voted on the best apps of the day, and members of the winning teams each received a brand new laptop and $25 gift card.
The Capital One Coders Program is part of Capital One’s commitment to ensure young people have the necessary resources to understand and explore their interests in STEM, a field that is expected to grow nearly 17 percent over the next decade. To bridge the STEM education gap, Capital One created the Coders curriculum to help students understand and pursue their interests in STEM fields during a critical period in their education – middle school years. Since the creation of the C1 Coders Program in 2014, Capital One has worked with more than 240 students.
