Codeverse Partners with Girl Scouts to Bring Coding Classes to Underserved Girls

by Tatum Hunter
September 24, 2019
Codeverse coding classes for kids Chicago
photo via codeverse

A few weeks ago, an elementary-aged student at Codeverse’s Lincoln Park coding school pulled co-founder Katy Lynch over to look at an iPad screen. 

She wanted to show Lynch an application she built, which displayed different-colored gemstones. Click on a red stone, and the lights in the room would turn red. Click on purple, and the hue would change again.

“She was excited to show me it and kept looking back and forth between the lights and her screen,” Lynch said. “I imagine it was rewarding for her, but it’s also incredibly rewarding for us and our team to see these kids be able to do these things.”

Lynch and her husband Craig Ulliott are the founders of coding education startup Codeverse, which uses the proprietary coding language KidScript and an interactive studio to teach tech skills to 6- to 13-year-olds. 

Today marks the official launch of the company’s partnership with Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana. Groupon, iF Charities, NAUT and Jayaram Law gave $45,000 so participants in the Girl Scouts’ GirlSpace program can take a weekly coding class at Codeverse, with transportation and meals provided. 

Twenty-five girls will present the apps and games they worked on during their first class at a kickoff event tonight at Codeverse Lincoln Park. 

This partnership is significant for a few reasons. One is that GirlSpace is a Girl Scouts subsidiary that serves low-income families. 

Computer science skills like coding open a wealth of job opportunities, but access to them is anything but equitable, with classes and camps often available only to wealthy school districts and high-earning families. 

This setup isn’t just unfair — it’s inefficient. Our economy is facing a tech skills gap, with a potential 5 million unfilled jobs by 2020, due to a lack of tech and IT talent. In a talent market like that, accessible skill-building could make a big difference. 

“Kids that come from these underserved communities, we want to be able to give them the upper hand when they have these skills,” Lynch said. “So when they do go to apply for tech jobs in the future, they do have that skill.”

More parents are enrolling young girls into coding programs because they want to dispel a lot of these myths.”

Another thing that sets this partnership apart is its focus on all-girls coding classes. A recent study revealed dismal projections for gender parity in computer science: If the rate of women entering the field and publishing research continues at its current level, gender parity won’t happen in the next 100 years. 

Lynch wants to speed up that process.

“Girls are equally as capable at all of these subjects, like coding, mathematics and science, as boys. So [negatives stereotypes are] annoying and frustrating. But I would say that the world is changing, people are doing more of their research and people are realizing,” she said. “And I would say more parents are enrolling young girls into coding programs because they want to dispel a lot of these myths.”

Codeverse isn’t Lynch’s first entrepreneurial venture in Chicago tech. She and Ulliott co-founded SocialKaty, a social media advertising agency. Ulliott also founded the travel app Where I’ve Been. 

The two launched Codeverse in 2017, and the school now has locations in Lincoln Park, Wilmette and Naperville. Dave Arel, who worked with Ulliott at shopper rewards app Belly (now Hatch Loyalty), is also a co-founder. 

Codeverse is currently adding a volunteer program so tech professionals can donate their time and talent. The company’s sponsorship program is already up and running, and anyone can donate on Codeverse’s website to fund a child’s coding classes. 

Although Codeverse has yet to expand outside Chicago, Lynch is excited about the effect businesses like hers will have on the city’s future tech landscape, she said. Her timing isn’t bad, as other names in Chicago tech, like Chris Gladwin, push to make the city a top-tier tech market.

“Craig and I have been here for over a decade. We’ve built businesses here, we’ve sold businesses here, and we’re just delighted to be building a company here that’s geared for children, so that when they grow up, they stay in Chicago, and they continue to innovate and build companies and startups here in Chicago."

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