Coding it Forward is an American 501c3 non-profit organization with the goal of building a talent pipeline into

civic tech Civic technology, or civic tech, enhances the relationship between the people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. It includes information and communications technology supportin ...

, primarily through creating and marketing data science and technology internships in federal government agencies for undergraduate and graduate students at colleges and universities across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

History

Several

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

students were inspired by former

Chief Technology Officer of the United States The United States Chief Technology Officer (US CTO) is an official in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The U.S. CTO helps the President and their team harness the power of data, innovation and technology on behalf of the American people ...

Megan Smith Megan J. Smith (born October 21, 1964) is an American engineer and technologist. She was the third Chief Technology Officer of the United States (U.S. CTO) and Assistant to the President, serving under President Barack Obama. She was previously a ...

's appeal for technologists to work in public service at the annual

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) is a series of conferences designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. It is the world's largest gathering of women in computing. The celebra ...

. They started a blog highlighting how students were contributing to civic tech, which grew to 800 members within two months. Two of the students took a course with the former Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States Nick Sinai where they had the opportunity to work on tech projects in government. That experience led to the idea of organizing tech focused student internships in government.

Civic Digital Fellowship

The primary program of Coding it Forward is their ''Civic Digital Fellowship'', a competitive 10-week data science and technology internship program for undergraduate and graduate students in United States federal agencies. They have received more than 1,100 applications from students from more than 175 colleges and universities for 50 fellowship positions. Among six federal agencies, the 50 students learn by working on group projects to improve their departments and the way in which they work. The fellows receive a paycheck, which is unlike many other internship programs in the government.

Growth

Recognition

Co-founders Athena Kan and Chris Kuang gave the closing keynote at the 2018

Code for America Code for America is a non-partisan, non-political 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2009 to address the widening gap between the public and private sectors in their effective use of technology and design. According to its website, the organizat ...

Summit in Oakland, CA, in front of an audience of 1,200 civic technologists
Video of Keynote
.

Funders

The organization has received support from philanthropic sources such as the

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is an organization established and owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan with an investment of 99 percent of the couple's wealth from their Facebook shares over their lifetime ...

, the

Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts. The organization was founded as the Knight Memorial Education ...

, and the

Shuttleworth Foundation The Shuttleworth Foundation was established in January 2001 by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth as an experiment with the purpose of providing funding for people engaged in social change. While there have been various iterations of t ...

References

{{reflist 2017 establishments in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Boston Organizations established in 2017 Technology in society