ScriptEd to open STEM afterschool program at Brooklyn International High School

ScriptEd, the youth digital literacy nonprofit, will open its first partnership with a Brooklyn high school this semester.

Their first afterschool coding class in the borough is tentatively scheduled to take place at Brooklyn International High School downtown on Monday. The Manhattan nonprofit wants low-income students to envision themselves taking on careers in the Internet economy. It works to fulfill that vision by both teaching students in volunteer-led classes after school about writing code and placing students in internships with New York tech firms.

The nonprofit’s 29 year-old founder, Maurya Couvares, told Technically Brooklyn that she recently left her full time job to focus on ScriptEd, after founding it two years ago. She described her goals for this first class of Brooklyn students in an email:

The main goal of our Foundations Course (or our beginner course) is to get students excited about coding and to prepare them for internships. To get them excited, we’re working to make sure our students can create projects and get them online as quickly as possible to share with their friends.  To prepare them for internships, students will learn HTML, CSS and Javascript in the first year.  They will also learn practical skills like using a version control system, debugging, and working in teams.

Of the 25 volunteers who teach courses after-school for ScriptEd around the city, five will be placed at Brooklyn International, mostly all Brooklynites. The program requires students to apply to join the program, and 10 to 15 of the applicants will be selected. The recruitment process is already underway. Volunteers also use their contacts to help the organization find internship placement. Read one student’s expression of appreciation for his time interning at Thrillist.

ScriptEd will be posting its curriculum on GitHub soon.

See Maurya Couvares explain the origin and vision for ScriptEd in more detail at TEDxNYED.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etPnN5PpCBQ&w=640&h=360]

She describes how the organization hosted its first Hackathon with the students this year. It gave them a challenge to create an interesting web page using a series of shapes. They are all quite impressive; we really liked the black hole page. See more in the video below: