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More than 30 Queens high schools will start providing computer science courses supported by Amazon’s Future Engineer, an initiative aimed at making computer science available to students in underrepresented and underserved communities.
With Amazon’s funding, in over 130 high schools in all five boroughs, the selected schools will offer Intro to Computer Science and Advanced Placement Computer Science classes through the New York-based curriculum provider, Edhesive. Amazon’s funding provides preparatory lessons, tutorials, and professional development for teachers, fully sequenced and paced digital curriculum for students, and live online support every day of the week for both students and teachers.
“The Young Women’s Leadership School of Queens is ecstatic to collaborate with Amazon on this great opportunity,” said George Diaz, assistant principal of The Young Women’s Leadership School of Queens in Jamaica. “Our young women will expand on their computer science knowledge and the skills that are so important and valuable in today’s economy. Amazon is helping fill a major gap in our curriculum that will help young people acquire the skills to build rewarding careers, while boosting prospects for our local community overall.”
These full-year courses are designed to inspire students and develop their understanding of technology and coding so that someday they might be interested in pursuing a professional career in the fast-growing field of computer science. All students participating in the program will receive a free membership to EWS Educate which provides them with free access to computer power in the AWS Cloud for their coding projects and content to learn about cloud computing.
“We want to help make sure more children across New York City gain the coding skills necessary to have successful careers in many fields,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer for Amazon. “We are excited that Amazon Future Engineer will immediately impact more than 130 schools and thousands of students who do not currently have access to computer science education. We will continue to invest in bringing these classes to more schools in New York City and across the U.S.”
Amazon Future Engineer is a comprehensive childhood-to-career program intended to inspire, educate, and train children and young adults from underserved and low-income communities across the country to pursue careers in the fast-growing field of computer science. The initiative hopes to inspire more than 10 million students each year to explore computer science, help over 100,000 young people in 2,000 high schools in lower income communities take Introductory or Advanced Placement courses in computer science, and provide 100 students from underrepresented communities with four-year $10,000 scholarships as well as guaranteed internships to gain work experience.
Other Queens schools taking part in the program include John Bowne High School in Flushing, Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens High School for Information Research and Technology in Far Rockaway, Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School in East Elmhurst and William Cullen Bryant High School in Long Island City.
