Generation tech
Summer program teaches N.Y. teens to code and conquer
The digital frontier is familiar territory for teenagers today. Social networking and Internet surfing are second nature to the students Jordan Runge works with as program director for the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). Runge teaches entrepreneurship programs at low-income high schools and says that, by and large, when he asks student for their best business ventures, they have to do with digital product development.
“They want to create websites and apps,” Runge says, “but they don’t really have access to the tools to help them develop these kind of programs.”
Seeking a solution, i n 2012 NFTE partnered with the city Economic Development Corp. to start NYC Generation Tech. It’s a free summer program through which New York teens learn to write code, design a mobile application and market their product to potential investors.
“The tech sector is continuously growing in New York City, and these students will have the tools to help lead the charge,” says Ian Fried, an Economic Development Corp. spokesman. “K-12 STEM education is imperative in the 21st century economy, and programs like GenTech will keep New York City at the forefront.”
Enrollment for GenTech 2014 opens Saturday. Students don’t need prior coding or business experience to apply, just a demonstrated interest in technology and entrepreneurship. They must also either attend a New York City high school at which more than 50% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch or personally qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
Over 11 weeks at GenTech, participants learn the fundamentals of Web development and enterprise. They start the summer with two-week crash course in coding to gain a working knowledge of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript, three of the most common front-end developer languages used to create websites and applications.
After the initial two weeks, students break up into teams and spend the rest of the summer developing a mobile app that must, in some way, improve the quality of life for New York City students. At the same time, they are also tasked with creating a business plan for launching their new venture. They are taught and mentored by NFTE staff members, as well as guest speakers from some of the city’s most successful startup companies.
Teams pitch their concepts at the end of summer to a panel of judges composed of tech-industry entrepreneurs– former judges include Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit; David Gilboa, co-founder of Warby Parker, and David Karp, founder of Tumblr. The winning team is awarded a consultation with a branding and marketing firm and a sit down with a venture capitalist.
“David Karp created Tumblr, which he eventually sold for $1.1 billion, while he was in high school,” Fried says. “It is becoming more and more evident that high school students have the skills to do amazing things in the tech world, and we are trying to foster that growth.”
For t y-three st udent s attended GenTech last summer. Among them was Jayson Isaac, a student at Cardozo High School in Queens, who was having a hard time finding a local outlets for his interest in computer science.
“It’s pretty unique,” he says. “There are really no programs like it, especially with the combination of both tech and entrepreneurship. You might find programs that do only the tech side, but they don’t really take you into the startup world and how people go about starting businesses.”
Isaac spent last summer working with fellow students Karishma Maraj, Melverton Hunter, Alan Tenemaza and Jin Yan Ruan developing SproutEd, an educational network where students can collaborate about school-related topics, ask questions and encourage their classmates to think creatively. It was the winning app at GenTech 2013.
“SproutEd empowers students to learn outside of the classroom, and discuss school-related topics on their mobile device,” says Hunter, a senior at Erasmus Hall in Brooklyn.
The five-student startup company hopes to launch a version of the app this year. They are currently marketing the mobile network to their classmates. Runge is not surprised that SproutEd’s team continues to pursue its project seriously, and says he sees lots of students use GenTech as a launching pad for internships or additional ventures.
“If you give student the tools,” says Runge, “they run with it. They’re really impressive in that way. Because of the organic nature of it, GenTech is as close to the real world as you can get.”
jgalloway@nydailynews.com