Registrations going well for coding sessions, some slots available
By Tom Ballard, Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Initiatives, Pershing Yoakley & Associates, P.C.
It’s March and, in addition to anticipation surrounding the arrival of warmer weather, there’s also a good deal of interest in The Biz Foundry’s Tennessee Code Academy initiative.
We caught-up with Sammy Lowdermilk, Program Director for the Academy, at last week’s “The TENN” finale in Nashville. The always upbeat Lowdermilk was particularly pumped about the organization’s progress to date.
“We have closed applications for the Cookeville Code Camp program and are rapidly approaching capacity for the next two,” he said. The Cookeville program launched Monday, and the next two are March 17-21 in Knoxville and two in Nashville – March 17-21 and March 24-28.
When we talked late last week, Knoxville was one short of capacity, and Nashville stood at 10 registrants out of a possible 24. Application deadline for both sessions is March 10.
Next up are March 24-28 sessions at Roane State Community College’s LaFollette campus and again in Nashville and a March 31 through April 4 class at the Northfield Workforce Development Center in Spring Hill. The complete schedule can be found here or on the Academy’s webpage.
Another reason for Lowdermilk’s enthusiasm is a recently announced additional initiative.
“Our ‘100 Girls of Code’ this summer will be our marquee program for 2014,” he said. “We are getting traction all over the state and sponsorships and donations are already coming in.”
Lowdermilk said The Biz Foundry will announce “100 Girls of Code” key partnerships in the next few weeks.
In addition, he said that he is in discussions with about 20 locations to hold summer week-long camps.
