Code2040 is Hosting its First Ever Hackathon! Here’s Why.
By Q McEachern
We are so excited to announce our inaugural “Tech for Resistance” Hackathon July 20–27! Racial equity education and technical skill building are two of the biggest pillars of the Fellows Program, and the Tech for Resistance Hackathon creates a platform for students to showcase everything they’ve learned as Code2040 Fellows.
Over the last few years, we’ve heard from Fellows that they want an opportunity to combine their technical skills with the racial equity lens they’ve gained during the fellows program. We decided to launch this hackathon to bridge this gap, and offer an opportunity for students to apply their technical skills directly to real world issues.
Importantly, the Tech for Resistance Hackathon enables students to leave the program with a concrete example of how their racial equity skills shape the technologies they will go on to design. They’ll be able to add their project to their resumes, share their experience with their peers back on their college campuses, and demonstrate to potential employers their capacity for innovation.
The Tech for Resistance Hackathon is oriented around community, connection, and growth. Students will work in teams, collaborating to design the technologies that address the most pressing social issues of our time, and those to come. The Hackathon Advisory Committee (HAC) is made up of Code2040 alumni and volunteers who are invested in holding the door open for Code2040 Fellows to enter the tech industry. The committee’s members, Maria Romano Silva, Shawn Logan, Aminah Aliu, and Adam Valencia, have been instrumental to designing this inaugural hackathon.
Fellows will compete along three different tracks: Reinvent, Respond, or Realize. The Reinvent path invites fellows to alter an existing technology through the lens of racial equity. On the Respond track, students can design new technologies that directly address systemic oppression within their current context. The **Realize **track invites students to imagine the future and what technologies might be needed. Each track winner will receive a $300 award per track with an additional $200 Fellows Choice prize.
Additionally, committee member Aminah Aliu is sponsoring a $200 prize for the team that creates the highest rated project centered around immigration rights or supporting undocumented people in the country. It's an incredible full circle moment for the program, and encourages students to really think about projects that matter as we approach the hackathon next week!
The Hackathon is a huge finale to our ten month Fellows Program where Fellows will collaboratively apply a racial equity lens to create technologies that challenge systemic oppression. Over the course of the Fellows program, students have been engaging deeply with social justice issues and considering the place of technology in creating more free futures. ****
Join our virtual Hackathaon closing ceremony Sunday, July 27, at 1PM ET/10AM PT where each team will provide a 3 minute presentation accompanied by a two minute demo of their tech for resistance project.
Our Fellows are the future of tech, and they are invested in designing technologies that will create more ease, opportunities, and access in their communities and families. They dream of applying tech skills toward advancing social justice issues. Our Fellows inspire us to remember that tech offers us different paths, and that together, we can shape the legacy of technology toward justice.