Building the Modern Workforce—One Hackathon at a Time

For over a decade, the We Connect The Dots, Inc annual Hackathon has introduced young people to software development, and to something even bigger: the mindsets and skills today’s modern workforce demands. As we kick off this year’s event, we’re inviting students - ages 13 to 18 - parents, educators, employers, and community leaders to join us in shaping a resilient, future-ready talent pipeline. We expand the presence of Artificial Intelligence each year, and this year we go further: students will learn to work with AI like a reliable teammate—to brief it, pair with it, check its work, and use it to accelerate high-quality results.

Why this matters now

Technology is moving faster than traditional education can keep pace. We hear it everywhere—classrooms, boardrooms, living rooms, and workforce boards: education vs. training is no longer an abstract debate. Graduates struggle to land roles without real-world experience. Families shoulder rising tuition debt. Employers need contributors who can learn quickly, collaborate across disciplines, and solve complex problems.

Add the acceleration of AI, and the stakes are even higher. The question isn’t just “Can students code?” It’s “Can they think critically, adapt, communicate, and keep learning when the playbook changes?”

Tech—and work itself—now moves at AI speed. Employers need contributors who can think critically and collaborate with AI to research faster, prototype smarter, communicate clearly, and make ethical decisions. The question isn’t “Can students code?” It’s “Can they lead a mixed human–AI team to solve real problems?”

Our answer: immersive, team-based learning with AI as a teammate

The Hackathon is more than coding. It’s an immersive environment where participants learn → apply → get feedback → iterate while practicing AI collaboration in every sprint. Students treat AI as a junior teammate they must brief, direct, and review—building judgment, leadership, and quality standards. Working on real projects in real teams. It’s a safe space to experiment, make mistakes, and grow.

We anchor projects in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) to encourage participants to think globally and act locally. Teams identify a problem they care about, research its impact, and design a solution, culminating in a website or prototype that brings their concept to life.

(Student Project Presentation - 1st Place Winners 2022- Highlight Reel)

Real roles, real AI workflows

We design the scope so learners can try multiple paths—each with concrete AI tasks:

• Product & Leadership (CEO/PM): draft a problem brief with AI, turn user stories into sprint tasks, run standups with an AI-generated checkpoint list, and write a demo script.

• Software Developer: pair-program with AI to scaffold components, generate tests, and refactor; use AI for code review and documentation; compare outputs to a team style guide.

• UX/UI & Content: use AI to transform sketches into wireframe copy, run quick user-story “what if” tests, and create accessible alt text and microcopy.

• Research & Impact: synthesize SDG data with citations, build an AI-assisted impact statement, and pressure-test assumptions with “red team” prompts.

• Marketing & Storytelling: generate audience personas, iterate messaging, storyboard a 60-second video, then polish with human voice and brand tone checks.

The Hackathon “AI Playbook” (what we teach explicitly)

• Brief like a boss: context → goal → constraints → format → success criteria.

• Verify everything: require sources, run a second-model sanity check, and test outputs.

• Quality gates: AI can draft; humans approve. Nothing ships without teammate review.

• Ethics & safety: cite sources, avoid deepfakes, protect privacy, respect licensing.

• Efficiency without shortcuts: use AI to accelerate learning, not replace it.

What participants gain

• AI collaboration skills: prompt engineering, chain-of-thought scaffolds, critique loops, and model-to-model cross-checks.

• Portfolio evidence: a shipped project plus a short AI Collaboration Log (prompts used, decisions made, quality checks) that colleges and employers love.

• Career clarity: try leadership, dev, design, research, and marketing—with AI in the loop.

• Resilience & mindset: practice our learn-apply-iterate loop and build confidence working with new tools.

What sponsors gain

• Workforce readiness you can measure: participants demonstrate AI-aware workflows, code + test coverage, and rubric-based delivery.

• Early access to future hires: meet students who can already brief, direct, and QA AI.

• Community impact: scale opportunity while elevating ethical, responsible AI use.

What partners gain (schools, nonprofits, employers, civic orgs)

• A repeatable, AI-aware model: complements curriculum and training without replacing them.

• PD for adults: educators and mentors learn current AI practices alongside students.

• Cross-sector collaboration: align education, industry, and government around shared outcomes.

How the Hackathon works

1. Challenge framing: learn the UN SDGs; choose a local problem.

2. Team formation: assign human roles and define AI tasks for each role.

3. Build & learn: short instruction bursts → team sprints with AI collaboration → mentor coaching.

4. Deliverable: website/prototype plus an AI Collaboration Log and impact summary.

5. Showcase & feedback: judges score against a transparent rubric (solution quality, teamwork, AI use & verification, SDG impact).

Join us

Students & Parents: Ready to stretch your skills? Build confidence, learn AI tools, and solve meaningful problems with fellow students! → Apply to participate

Sponsors: Fuel opportunity, strengthen your hiring pipeline, and back ethical AI education with measurable outcomes. → Become a sponsor

Partners (schools, nonprofits, employers): Bring the Hackathon to your community or integrate it with your programs. → Partner with us

Let’s build a resilient, inclusive, AI-ready workforce—together.

WCTD partners with comptia

COMPTIA SECURITY+ OPENS THE DOOR TO YOUR CYBERSECURITY CAREER!

CompTIA Security+ is a global certification that validates the baseline skills learners need to perform core security functions.

Why CompTIA Security+

Cybersecurity attacks continue to grow. Increasingly, more job roles are tasked with baseline security readiness and response to address today’s threats. Updates to Security+ reflect skills relevant to these job roles and prepare candidates to be more proactive in preventing the next attack. The updated version of Security+ 601 ensures organizations have talent with the latest skills and competencies needed to improve baseline security readiness and incident response by applying today’s current best practices for addressing the latest attacks, threats, and vulnerabilities.

TRAIN THE WAY YOU WANT!

• Online Instructor Lead

• In person

• Online Self Paced

Why CompTIA?

Certification validates your skills and is proof that you have mastered the knowledge covered in training. CompTIA Security+ is the industry standard for establishing a career in security and is the preferred qualifying credential for early career cybersecurity professionals.

About The Exam

CompTIA Security+ is the first security certification a candidate should earn. It establishes the core knowledge required of any cybersecurity role and provides a springboard to intermediate-level cybersecurity jobs. Security+ incorporates best practices in hands-on troubleshooting, ensuring candidates have practical security problem-solving skills required to:

• Assess the security posture of an enterprise environment and recommend and implement appropriate security solutions

• Monitor and secure hybrid environments, including cloud, mobile, and IoT

• Operate with an awareness of applicable laws and policies, including principles of governance, risk, and compliance

• Identify, analyze, and respond to security events and incidents

  Security+ is compliant with ISO 17024 standards and approved by the US DoD to meet directive 8140/8570.01-M requirements. Regulators and government rely on ANSI accreditation, because it provides confidence and trust in the outputs of an accredited program. Over 2.3 million CompTIA ISO/ANSI-accredited exams have been delivered since January 1, 2011.

What Skills Will You Learn?

Attacks, Threats and Vulnerabilities

Focusing on more threats, attacks, and vulnerabilities on the Internet from newer custom devices that must be mitigated, such as IoT and embedded devices, newer DDoS attacks, and social engineering attacks based on current events

Architecture and Design

Includes coverage of enterprise environments and reliance on the cloud, which is growing quickly as organizations transition to hybrid networks.

Implementation

Expanded to focus on administering identity, access management, PKI, basic cryptography, wireless, and end-to-end security.

Operations and Incident Response

Covering organizational security assessment and incident response procedures, such as basic threat detection, risk mitigation techniques, security controls, and basic digital forensics.

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Expanded to support organizational risk management and compliance to regulations, such as PCI-DSS, SOX, HIPAA, GDPR, FISMA, NIST, and CCPA.

Organizations that have contributed to the development of Security+

• Target

• Netflix

• Center For Information Warfare Training

• General Dynamics

• Splunk>

• Johns Hopkins University

Jobs that use CompTIA Security+

• Security Administrator

• Helpdesk Manager / Analyst

• Security Engineer / Analyst

• IT Auditors

• Systems Administrator

• Network / Cloud Engineer

• DevOps / Software Developer

• IT Project Manager

Why Coaching?

Coaching a team helps them grow and leads them to greatness. Anam Javaid, Coach at Nebula Academy and accredited facilitator from the Academy of Brain-based Leadership utilizes her knowledge and expertise to provide sustainable results to underserved youth in UpSkill NY and Sister Cities Project workforce development programs (2021-2022). Read the full press release

PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

The key to happy, high-performing people and teams

What is psychological safety?

The term Psychological Safety was originated by Harvard Business School. This applies to team work. The context by Edmondson defined psychological safety as:

“A belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking”- Edmondson, 2014

Why is this Important?

Research has revealed the importance of Psychological Safety for personal mental and physical health, engagement, and productivity. Nebula Academy coaching builds on communication skills; identifying and managing the triggers that threaten Psychological Safety, for example:

• Changes in speech

• Facial expressions

• A person who is surprised raising their eyebrows

• Bodily expressions

• Showing pride

• Shame or disgust

When our Psychological Safety is threatened, our brain is triggered into a stress response which compromises our abilities and impacts our ability to think, be creative, make decisions, and regulate emotions.

Experiencing psychological threat over a prolonged period can have more serious impacts on mental and physical health and wellbeing and can lead to burnout and illness. For example, let’s say your working on multiple projects and they are due at 4pm, but you are not even close to being done. This might make you anxious and your stress level will rise. Learning to control emotions will reduce triggers to your brain so you won’t cause illness to the body.

Why is this relevant for the workplace?

In 2015 Google published the results of Project Aristotle, an in-depth study to find the factors common to high-performing teams. Research on 100s of their teams revealed the most agile and high-performing teams were those with a high sense of Psychological Safety. Members of these teams felt a sense of trust and security within the team which enabled them to speak up and be themselves, without fear of retribution or ridicule. This led to a more engaged and collaborative team where members were more trusting, less likely to leave and more likely to harness the power of diversity, leading to greater team performance and success.

How do you measure and build it?

Thanks to recent breakthroughs in neuroscience we are now gaining this visibility by uncovering the brain’s social needs that determine and impact our sense of Psychological Safety.

Your brain is hardwired for Safety!

As society has evolved, our brains have become acutely sensitive, not only to physical threats, but to psychological threats we perceive in our social interactions. These can be things like attitudes, behaviors, motivations and judgements.

Mostly these threats are monitored and detected by our brain at a nonconscious level. In fact more than 99% of our decisions, motivations and reactions are influenced by automatic, nonconscious processes, meaning that most of the time…you are on autopilot.

Building safety for our brain!

It’s important to keep our brain safe and not cause any triggers. Its our job to take control of our emotions so we won’t be stressed out. Or get sick. We also have to know that people are different and respond to different triggers. Don’t let emotions take over you, YOU take over them.

The Academy of Brain-based Leadership

CODE-A-Thon 2021, A Virtual Journey from Planning to Completion

Introduction - Ojas 

A snapshot of our 2021 Code-A-Thon

Since its inception, the Code-A-Thon has become a quintessential aspect of the WCTD program line-up. Every year, students from various high schools meet up at one location for the weekend, where they transform a new acquaintance into a project and friendships. By staying together for 72 hours, the students share a large portion of their time, quite literally from the moment they wake up to the moment they fall asleep. 

This year, however, we were faced with the challenge of the pandemic. In a program that relies on collaboration and communication, how can success be even plausible without the one aspect that seems so necessary?   By design the CODE-A-THON had in the past an online component across sites, when teams would engage with each other to share ideas and collaborate on feedback for their projects. This year however each participant was within their own home and coming online to be a part of an amazing program that enabled them to be social, laugh, learn, and experience solving problems together. For many this was a much needed opportunity to feel like you were a part of something important and working on a project to solve real global issues.

Training Sessions – Hiral 

Level 3 Training Session on Microsoft Teams

For the 2021 CODE-A-THON, we provided students with training sessions to teach them coding skills in preparation for the CODE-A-THON weekend. By providing these training sessions, we could ensure that any student, regardless of their prior experience with programming, could participate. With three different levels of training sessions, students could select which sessions they would attend. In Level 1, students were introduced to HTML and CSS as well as some JavaScript. In Level 2, the students focused on JavaScript with integration of HTML and CSS. Finally, Level 3 covered a higher expertise in JavaScript and React. 

The engagement in the training sessions was amazing to see. The students were all interested in what they were learning and even showed off some of their work. Being able to see the development of the students' skills was such an amazing opportunity. They were able to learn many valuable coding concepts through fun projects, including creating their very own website. These skills were then applied to the Code-a-Thon competition, allowing the students to make inspiring solutions to the United Nations Sustainability Goals. 

These training sessions would not have been possible without the work of our instructors: Chris Gomez, Kerri Shotts, and John Wargo. We truly appreciate the work they have done for the Hack-A-Thon as well as the effort provided by the students! 

Games- Bharvi 

During the CODE-A-THON we were able to organize several games for the students to participate in. The games were designed to incentivize teamwork and creative thinking. To motivate and create some fun competition the games involved prizes! During our training sessions we blended gamification with the learning experience. Each activity was designed to give time for teams to get to know each other and build strong connections for working together on their projects. During the training sessions students participated in a typing competition and a survival activity. During the competition weekend, games included STEAM-related crossword puzzles, bingo, Kahoot, and Unlock the Box. Students worked individually while competing in Kahoot, bingo, and the typing competition, but with their teammates for the crossword puzzles and unlock the box. 

Broadening Our Impact - Michelle 

The Code-A-Thon’s attendance spanned across the United States!

The strange circumstances we are all under due to the ongoing pandemic have greatly impacted the annual CODE-A-THON, and for once in a positive manner. In years past, the Hack-A-Thon has been to the amenity of students who lived within reasonable travel distances away from the coding sites. This year, in 2021, the opportunity to contribute to and participate in the CODE-A-THON was extended to students all over the United States, thanks to this year’s online model of the program. Students who live in rural areas and in areas far from the traditional CODE-A-THON sites had the opportunity to partake in this year's program, and to gain the same skills and learning experience as all other students who have participated in the program in years past. This online format provided teams with the opportunity to work with students from other states as far across the country as WA, and CA.

Measuring Our Outcomes

As a research focused organization we value the importance of learning from our outcomes and ensuring we measure what is important. We want to learn from each experience to create positive change and build programs that create value and impact to our participants. What follows is a brief summary of the program participants, how the program supported a shift in mindset and feedback regarding their experience. This is just a sample of our full research data.

What did you think of the online experience?

“I liked it I thought it was fun and I learned that I'm good at graphic designing and good at doing a little bit of coding as well.”

“It was almost indiscernible from the actual in-person experience.”

“I had some internet issues, but otherwise I really enjoyed working online. I hope that WCTD does another online program like this next year as well. Since I live in Illinois, I can't come to Long Island for the program, but it was really fun and I would love to do it again!”

“I think it was better than in-person and I hope you continue this online format.” 

“I liked how we used the Microsoft utilities and the activities.”

What was your favorite part of the program?

“My favorite part was getting able to make the website! I definitely learned a lot about HTML, and I'm going to make a website with my brother as soon as I can. Each year I participate in the code-a-thon I seem to make better websites!”

“The friends i made during the program”

“I enjoyed the team building activities and getting to know other people.”

“I liked how we got to learn new things and communicate with others who are also interested. The instructors and mentors were great and really helpful.”

“The structure/management of tasks and activities. I think the time to take a break and eat, do activities, and work was placed well because when I felt like I needed a break, there would usually be an activity starting soon which is good.”
“Meeting people who share similar backgrounds with me and working on a project with them.”

“My favorite part was the collaboration with a team.”

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

This program could not have been possible without the funding and support of our sponsors. We would like to thank Jovia Financial Credit Union, Microsoft, The American Association of University Women, and Nebula Academy. With their help, we were able to provide a positive learning experience, investing in our future workforce, and award amazing prizes and complimentary gifts to the students who participated!

Thank you to our Community Ambassador Team who without their dedication and commitment to supporting communities across the country this program would not have been a success!

Help us provide more students with learning programs that bring long term value to their ability to build sustainable and successful careers in STEAM! Make a donation today!

Michael Watt, President of Long Island Inc, Joins Board of We Connect the Dots

New York, NY- September 15, 2020- We Connect The Dots (WCTD), a non-profit organization supporting the advancement of STEAM careers in young adults and adults, today announced that Michael Watt, President of Long Island Inc., has joined its Board of Directors.

Michael Watt is dedicated to ensuring his native Long Island’s vitality. As such, he advocates on behalf of small businesses owners and Long Islanders looking to launch a career or become leaders in the region by tapping into the extensive network of public- and private-sector connections he has developed over the years.

Michael Watt, President of Long Island Inc.

“As COVID continues to disrupt businesses and income for many community members on Long Island, our organization is helping to provide new career opportunities through workforce skills development for in-demand job markets,” said Laurie Carey, Executive Director of We Connect The Dots. “We need board members like Michael Watt who play a key role in driving positive disruption to a Long Island that needs to rethink and reshape for our future. Michael is very involved in supporting Long Islanders looking to build their careers and become leaders in their communities. We are excited to have Michael on our team and to be a part of creating positive systemic change for the next generation of Long Island leaders.”

His efforts on behalf of Long Island include serving as Executive Director for The LIincs Organization, an organization he founded, spearheading the creation of the Millennial Leadership Coalition, and working as community manager for 1025Works at 1025 Old Country Road in Westbury. He ran the Long Island Partnership, an umbrella organization representing Long Island’s dozens of economic develop agencies, co-founded 516 Magazine, which highlighted Long Island’s entertainment, recreation and leisure opportunities and launched LongIsland.com, a regional search engine.

“We Connect The Dots' focus on developing problem-solving skills for educators and students alike is key to meeting the challenges society faces in the years to come. To be part of the process is an honor and to contribute to its success is a privilege,” said Mr. Watt.

About We Connect The Dots, Inc.

We Connect The Dots (WCTD) is a non-profit organization focused on inspiring and educating young adults and adults in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) careers. Through collaboration with the community, education professionals, the government and the technology industry, WCTD provides awareness and education of 21st Century workforce skills through experiential learning programs. For more information, please visit www.we-connect-the-dots.org.

Teresa Varela, the Director of Business and Workforce Development of CompTIA, Joins Board of We Connect The Dots

New York, NY- September 15, 2020- We Connect The Dots (WCTD), a non-profit organization supporting the advancement of STEAM careers in young adults and adults, today announced that Teresa Varela, the Director of Business and Workforce Development of CompTIA, has joined its Board of Directors.

Teresa brings Teresa has over 25 years of progressive sales, management, business and workforce development experience in the technology industry at various technology media organizations. In her current role she works with businesses across the U.S. to upskill and/or outskill their technology talent. She started at CompTIA 8 years ago and fell in love with workforce development, non-profit initiatives and supporting IT professionals on their career journey.

Teresa Varela, the Director of Business and Workforce Development of CompTIA

“In order to move our organization forward we need a team that has experience and relationships with the industry partners who benefit from the workforce we are shaping, someone experienced in tech workforce development.  As a Director of Business Development for COMPTIA, Teresa will help to broader our reach and partnerships to impact communities nationally,” said Laurie Carey, Founder and Executive Director of We Connect The Dots. 

Passionate about ongoing learning and development in personal and professional life, and fortunate to be in tech for over 20 years, Teresa love the pace as well as the success it provides individuals with or without college degrees. In her spare time, she enjoys family, beaches and supporting others as they navigate their careers. 

“Everyone should have the opportunity to learn new skills that will improve their overall life and tech is an amazing career,” said Teresa.

About We Connect The Dots, Inc.

We Connect The Dots (WCTD) is a non-profit organization focused on inspiring and educating young adults and adults in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) careers.  Through collaboration with the community, education professionals, the government and the technology industry, WCTD provides awareness and education of 21st Century workforce skills through experiential learning programs. For more information, please visit www.we-connect-the-dots.org.

Greg Henson Joins Board of We Connect The Dots, Inc.

New York, NY- September 17, 2020- We Connect The Dots (WCTD), a non-profit organization supporting the advancement of STEAM careers in young adults and adults, today announced that Greg Henson, the President and CEO of The Henson Group, Inc., has joined its Board of Directors.

Mr. Henson brings over 20+ years of experience in business technology and non-profit experience to the organization. With his experience in Microsoft, as a Developer Product Support Engineer and then as a Consultant for the Microsoft Consulting Services, Mr. Henson brings a unique perspective on Microsoft’s technologies that few can match. Outside of the Henson Group, Greg strives to help underrepresented people from all walks of life see and obtain careers in cloud technologies. 

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Greg Henson, President & CEO of The Henson Group, Inc,

“As we move this organization towards supporting a broader positive systemic change in our communities across the nation it is critical to bring on a board that can support those efforts.  Greg brings leadership, global experience, and a passion for philanthropy to our team,” said Laurie Carey, Founder and Executive Director of We Connect The Dots.

Mr. Henson holds numerous technical certifications, is classified as an Architectural Consultant, is an active member of the International Society for Information Management (ISIM), Forbes Technology Counsel, and serves as a board member for several companies. In addition to his professional endeavors, Greg is dedicated to training veterans, women, and working-class people for a career in Azure at his non-profit organization, Cloud for Impact.

“I’m honored to accept a board position at WCTD and look forward to helping the organization achieve its goals and mission,” said Greg.

About We Connect The Dots, Inc.

We Connect The Dots (WCTD) is a non-profit organization focused on inspiring and educating young adults and adults in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) careers.  Through collaboration with the community, education professionals, the government and the technology industry, WCTD provides awareness and education of 21st Century workforce skills through experiential learning programs. For more information, please visit www.we-connect-the-dots.org.

2019 Annual Report: We Connect The Dots and Nebula Academy

It has been seven years since We Connect The Dots was established, and five years since Nebula professional Development Academy was established, it has been an incredible journey. We have overcome enormous challenges along the way, each time learning, and building a stronger social enterprise more resilient than ever.

We are a social venture creating positive systemic change to today’s education system from K-to-Career. We provide underrepresented populations with access to immersive learning experiences to teach information technology and computer science education.

We teach students ages 7-18 years old the power of creativity through coding, we then take those experiences with students and design curriculum for the classroom to engage diverse learning needs. We empower educators with the tools and resources to reignite learning through the integration of technology and blended learning experiences across knowledge domains, and we bridge education and industry to support adults entering, reentering, and rebuilding their careers. We call this the Computer Science Growth System, a model that builds capacity in our students, our educators, and our workforce. This model changes the dynamics of how and what we teach to reduce the gap between academia and industry needs.

Our workforce is evolving, and with it the skills necessary to sustain in our future. This shift demands new thinking about how and what we are teaching our students in the classroom, and how we maintain and retool our competitive skills in the workforce.

With the help of partnerships like Marcum LLP our team has redefined our messaging and how we view our social enterprise with the work that We Connect The Dots and Nebula Academy accomplish together. This report crosses over the highlights of our work together in 2019 and our goals for 2020.

As a research focused education organization, we are continuously evaluating how and what we teach in our student programs, our educator programs, and in our workforce development programs. When we design a new program or modify an existing program our approach to the design is consistent from an operations and scale model. We first evaluate the need. What are the skills that we need to teach? We utilize assessments to gain a baseline and then measure outcomes through post assessments, and internal program evaluations. Using cognitive neuroscience research as a part of our methodology we create learning experiences that involve gamification, foundational skills, and a framework of the learning outcomes we seek to create as a result of the program. 

We blend it all together to create a story board of how the timeline flows, where we need to chunk out the content to maintain engagement, determine the emotions we need to spark to create the neurochemicals and the recipe for stickiness, than experiment to see what the outcomes result in. Sometimes it goes exactly as planned the first time through the activity, sometimes we scratch it and start over. Most cases we nail it as a result of our design methodology, but almost 100% of the time we are tweaking to increase the learning outcomes for every participant.

2020 Annual CODE-A-Thon:

This program continues to evolve each year with a goal to engage more students in learning about the career opportunities in the world of web development. It is not about every student coming away with the ability to code, it is about creating impact in rural and underrepresented communities. The impact targets students, educators, and businesses in the local area where the program is held. This community program brings together a collaborative effort to build capacity and engage students in a positive learning experience. Each student will take away a different sense of accomplishment. Some will have had the opportunity to work collaboratively on a project for the first time.

Many will gain a sense of belonging to something that makes them feel like they can make a positive contribution and build their self-worth and self-esteem. Students will learn a bit about themselves and how well they work with others, all preparing them to gain self-awareness of what they might do differently to improve their experience, and their ability to contribute to a successful project. We just wrapped up our fifth year of the program, check out our highlight video showcasing the value to students and the communities who host the program. You can also visit our FaceBook page to watch the student projects that were broadcast live via Facebook during the final day of the program. We have also included some demographics from this year’s program, and links to recordings of a few of the student team projects.

CODE-A-Thon Program Highlight Video Link

Student projects Video link

We are already planning the 2021 program and seeking partners to help invest in funding to train host site leads so that we can expand our reach for 2021 into new states including SC, NJ, CA. Funds will support transportation to and from the program for students in rural areas of OH, and address transportation challenges on Long Island, NY.

2019 Discovery Day at Microsoft:

Each year we utilize our Discovery Day at Microsoft program to evaluate new curriculum and new technology to see if it resonates with students, and how it might be integrated into a classroom learning experience or blended into a knowledge domain. We have been teaching coding in partnership with STEAM Drones for the past year, impacting hundreds of schools, teachers and students nationally. Teaching teachers and nonprofit STEM instructors how to integrate coding with physical computing into the classroom and within STEM education programs.

Using novel tools like drones to teach coding is super cool for both students and educators. What about using those same tools to teach complex math to get students to see that aha moment or insight into real world applied mathematics? This is where things get fun and create transformation in the classroom. We decided to shape content that helped teachers and students make connections in complex math and how students might reverse engineer concepts to see how math is utilized in creating autonomous missions for drones. The concept was a big hit with both students and educators, the result shaped curriculum for a ½ year elective for middle school students using drones to code and learn math in new ways.

Based on the success of the workshops we integrated drones into the Hack-A-Thon this year and piloted a coding competition using the drones. This concept is now being developed for a broader national competition concept. We are doing a number of small pilot programs running this spring at universities on Long Island, teaching underrepresented populations including girls, to code with drones. We are seeking industry partners for sponsorship of the program at a national and local level.

You can see an example of a typical workshop Nebula Academy delivers in partnership with STEAM Drones and DroneBlocks, in this video from Computer Science week this past December at Chapin School in New York City.

BuildingSTEAM Benefit:

In May of 2019 we moved into our new home in a facility in Syosset NY. This new space provides us with a place where we can host programs, better utilize our equipment, and provide our team with the space and resources to develop new programs. We are now able to offer regular consistent learning programs to teach coding, and deliver in person and virtual professional development programs. Moving was the right thing for us, but it presented new challenges in getting the students and community members who need our programs the most with access to our programs. Transportation on Long Island is the biggest inhibitor to educating underrepresented populations. As we engage with seeking grants to support creating impact we have placed a high priority on incorporating transportation costs into our budgets in 2020 and beyond.

Software Engineer Bootcamp: (Nebula Academy Program – Scholarship Program “Pathways to Success” Management by WCTD)

 In July of 2019 we invested in an application for the NYS Consolidated Funding Application for Workforce Development Funds. The project “Pathways To Success” a 22 week Software Engineer program was the first grant application that blended the strengths of the two organizations. Nebula Academy delivering the education program and WCTD supporting the program management, and scholarships for participants from underrepresented populations, including women, veterans, disabled, and those without financial means. As we designed this program and the scholarships we wanted to ensure the program outcomes took candidates to entry level roles in information technology careers. The design incorporates technical skills, along with soft skills, and an industry certification. In order to ensure candidates could make the investment in the program we incorporated transportation costs, a small stipend for living costs while in training, food and snacks during the program, all the resource expenses including certification exams, and a laptop to support the necessary tool box of a web developer.

We are in the final phases of our application process for our March 2020 cohort to begin with over 50 applications for scholarships, we will not be able to provide every candidate the opportunity to participate, however we are looking at other funding sources including providing options to pay after employment for participants not selected for scholarships.

AWS Academy:

In the spring of 2019 we engaged with Amazon to become a AWS Academy, offering accredited AWS courses as a part of our programs. This was a major investment in building staff capacity and a marketing and sales process to drive demand. Almost a year later our instructors our accredited and we have integrated the AWS Cloud Practitioner certification into our SE Bootcamp program. This spring we will begin delivering both in person and live remote sessions. We have a number of colleges and universities working with us to offer AWS programs in blended or stacked courses to enable students to gain not only a degree, but an industry certification as well.

Real-world Experience:

Sometimes experiments lead you to new opportunities and unexpected results, results that turn out to be way more amazing than you had planned. After 7 years and numerous requests by our Community Ambassador students we took on a project to redesign our website, and implement Salesforce to track our program registrations and funding sources. With a goal to better manage program engagements for those participating in our programs, and who is supporting us through donations, as well as manage our grant processes more efficiently. This would lay the ground work to enable scale operationally with limited resources. A new look for the public and new backend data would require resources and funding to support the efforts. With neither available we thought through a concept idea using Volunteer Match, the platform we leverage to seek volunteers for our programs. With our upcoming SE Bootcamp we needed to be able to design a model where our participants could work on projects for nonprofits and small startups to help the organizations and help the participants build real-world project experience and portfolios to gain employment.

"Volunteering for WCTD helped me in numerous ways. My recruiter and hiring manager were impressed that after learning I kept myself engaged by implementing my knowledge in real time projects through volunteering at WCTD. Personally, I felt it gave me enough confidence to face the interviews and gave me a sense of accomplishment, resulting in obtaining a job. Thank you WCTD for giving me the opportunity to demonstrate my skills while giving back." - Swati - Software Engineer

With a team of volunteers, we shaped the roles we would need as well as a brief description of the skills required to participate. Next we created the volunteer posts on Volunteer Match and socialized them through our social media outlets. Within an hour of posting the opportunity we begin to get requests to participate. Some people wanted to help because they had years of experience and were seeking an opportunity to give back, but the majority of volunteers wanted the opportunity to build their capacity to gain employment. This was the insight that we had already known was an issue, but for the first time it was being shared in these requests in a way we had never imagined.

The projects have been ongoing for the past few months and the concept has more than proven its success in supporting those in need of real-world application of their skills, and providing an opportunity to create teaching moments on a project that can support people to gain employment. This experiment will now evolve into our Bootcamp as we engage with nonprofit organizations and small startups to help create a win, win, win scenario for our students, companies, and our organization.

After school Coding Program:

Our enrollment for our afterschool coding program is beginning to build momentum, which is exciting as it builds funding sources to support our facility costs. Our challenge is ensuring we have a diverse population of students participating in the program. To be successful in offering scholarships for the coding programs we need to increase our paid student ratio to support our ability to offer scholarships, but it is not the complete solution. We tried to offer scholarships to students in underrepresented communities on Long Island in our fall 2019 session, however they could not get to our facility to participate. Transportation is a big challenge; students want to participate but getting to us is a huge hurdle. Our goal for 2020 is to find creative partnerships that will either fund the costs or provide the transportation services as a donation or at a reduced cost. Transportation is an inhibitor for students seeking the opportunity to be a part of our learning programs. 2020 will be the year to address this issue and to remove the barrier and enable us to create a broader impact.

Building Computer Science Capacity in Schools:

2019 was an incredible year of growth and rebuilding, but in order to create real positive systemic change we need to address the real challenge our education system is facing. We are currently experiencing over 300,000 job shortfall in public education. The costs of a significant teacher employment gap are high, and consequences measurable, including changes to curricula and our ability to teach computer science in schools. The rate of growth in industries requiring higher level thinking skills is outpacing our ability to fill the demand. Traditional learning programs have not evolved to support the diverse learning needs of today's society. With over 26,000 high schools in the US, less than 50 % teach computer science. We plan to create a big dent in that number, starting this summer with our Computer Science Teacher Certification Bootcamp. This professional development program aligns with the NYS Computer Science Certificate Coursework Guidance, and as a NYS CTLE provide Nebula Academy will be providing a certification for educators who complete the full four week program.

This four week program is designed to support schools in building the necessary capacity to provide Computer Science education in the classroom. Registration for this program is opening in February of 2020, with the feedback we have received from our education community we already know this program will fill to capacity quickly. Applications for scholarships will be available shortly after registration opens. Scholarships will be targeted at Title One school districts on Long Island.

Coaching and Team Building Programs:

As a research organization we utilize the latest cognitive neuroscience research from organizations like The Academy of Brain-Based Leadership (ABL), and the Neuroleadership Institute. We blend our coaching training into our programs and ensure our instructors are trained in our teaching model to bring the best outcomes to our train the trainer programs and our professional development programs. We work with corporations to create custom designed workforce development programs that help re-skill through gamified team building workshops that reinforce company values, skills, and team collaboration goals. Through a NYC professional development contract awarded in 2019 we plan to provide more of these immersive training programs to impact company’s by increasing productivity through greater accountability and coaching cultures in the workforce.

We currently have a one room schoolhouse which limits us to delivering only one program at a time. We have creatively designed our programs to support day classes, after school programs, and evening learning and events. Our goal is to seek funding sources either through grants or angel investors who value the impact we are creating as a social enterprise. Through these funding sources we will build staffing capacity to deliver more programs, increase marketing and sales capacity to drive our brand and program awareness, and expand into larger space to deliver a greater impact to the audiences who need us most.

Thank you to all of our volunteers and partners for supporting our success in 2019!