Code Savvy

“Reviewed by the executive director and emailed to all board members before being filed.”

“Compensation of the executive director of technovation was determined by reviewing comparability data and approval by code savvy executive director.”

“Organizing documents and financial statements available upon request.”

“To interrupt and counteract existing gender, racial, and economic gaps in computing by equipping youth and educators with the knowledge, skills, and support to create with technology. In march of 2020 the beginnings of the pandemic caused a major transformation in our daily lives. Technology became more important than ever to work, to play, to obtain needed supplies, and to connect with other people. Code savvy adjusted to these changes by indefinitely canceling all in-person events. It was a hard decision, but we knew it was the right thing to do. Our mission to bring technology to students and educators was critical so we transformed ourselves. Through donations, volunteering, and participation our programs continued to thrive. We plan to resume in-person events in the summer of 2021 following government guidelines.”

“Mentoring student participants, speaking at events, committee work to run programs, attending board and committee meetings.”

“Mncodes educator program (used to be called gwtp (get with the program): mncodes greatest accomplishment in 2020 was converting all of our mncodes offerings to an online format. Both the 2019-20 and the 2020-21 mncodes cohorts were shifted to an online format. The cohort meets monthly for a half day of synchronous learning time, and provides cohort members with asynchronous resources to explore in between meetings. We were also able to develop and provide four online courses over the summer attended by 8 - 15 educators each, including educators from out of state. We also continued to develop existing contracts with school districts, as well as build new ones. In 2020 mncodes partnered with bloomington public schools, austin public schools, and brooklyn center public schools to develop their computer science educational offerings for students. We have also been in contact with several other interested districts to explore potential partnerships.”

“Technovationmn: technovationmn inspires and empowers girls ages 10 to 18 to leverage technology to make an impact on their communities. Technovationmn, founded in 2014, is the minnesota chapter of the global organization, technovation girls, the largest and longest-running global technology and entrepreneurship competition exclusively for girls to inspire the pursuit of science, technology, engineering, and math (stem). Highlights in 2020 included: - scholarship funding to ten participants (five middle school and five high school students), an increase of two scholarships from 2019. - hired our first summer intern and expanded it to two roles given the high caliber of candidates. This provided summer jobs to two alumni of our program during a pandemic when work was scarce. It was a huge success and we are looking to continue the effort as funding allows. - hosted app day, design thinking workshop, and pivoted to a technology tool workshop when all teams were required to go virtual. Despite the pandemic, we were able to continue our program virtually, providing a means for distance learning and continuing to drive more diverse teams to technology at a time when nearly every aspect of our lives depended on technology. - although appapalooza was canceled, we honored the seven semi-finalist teams by visiting their homes (twin cities and southeast areas) with celebratory signs and swag bags. We also sent t-shirts to all participants which were very well received. - in 2020, 154 girls participated in the program, guided by 115 mentors, including leaders in corporate and academia. Since 2014, nearly 1,500 girls on 375 teams from over 60 schools, primarily twin cities and southeast minnesota areas, have participated in the program.”

“Coderdojo tc and rebecca coderdojo: coderdojotc, a free, friendly place where kids learn to code, started in april 2013 -- code savvy's first and most famous program. Inspired by the global coderdojo movement, coderdojotc welcomes 60-90 young coders with a ratio of 1 mentor for every 3 students on one or two saturdays each month during the school year to code kid-chosen projects with the help of knowledgeable, encouraging mentors. In 2020, we successfully transitioned the both coderdojo tc and rebecca coderdojo from an in person format to an online format. The virtual events allowed us to continue to provide opportunities for kids ages 7 - 17 to have computer science learning experience, and to inspire them to transform the future.”

“Code camps and code clubs: in 2020, we held 3 summer code camps reaching 14 students virtually through our partnership with the works museum. We have already schedules two in- person summer camps for 2021 and plan to resume partnering with libraries to offer more summer camps in minneapolis. Due to the pandemic we had to suspend our code clubs.”