Sponsor Spotlight: Meet UFG Developer Usha

Rob MerrittComputer Science, Education

Usha sits in a lounge area of the cafeteria space on UFG's downtown Cedar Rapids campus. Meet Usha. She’s been with UFG Insurance for two years as an Application Development Team Lead. She values her position at UFG because UFG values her. “Everybody is pretty supportive; even though UFG is growing they’re trying to keep the family feel for the ... Read More

We’re Rebranding! Meet NewBoCo K-12 Education

Aaron HornEducation

Four kids work on laptops learning how to code with the NewBoCo K-12 Education logo in the bottom left corner.

 NewBoCo’s been up to a lot these past four years. We’ve grown from a small startup accelerator to a nonprofit with programming supporting education, innovation, and entrepreneurship for Iowans of all ages. As we’ve grown, we know it’s been hard to keep up with what exactly it is we do here. So many of our programs have different names, and … Read More

Volunteer Spotlight: Asmaa Elkeurti

Molly MonkComputer Science, Education

NewBoCo Volunteer Asmaa Elkeurti works with a student on a laptop for NewBoCo's Girls Code Camp

“I firmly believe anyone can learn computer science.” — Asmaa Elkeurti After graduating from the University of Iowa in 2016, Asmaa Elkeurti became a developer at Pear Deck, an Iowa City-based education startup offering a web-based application to K-12 schools and teachers, and a regular volunteer for NewBoCo’s K-12 computer science education programs. Before she leads this Saturday’s Javascript session for our GirlsCode++ … Read More

Huge progress in Computer Science education this week

Eric EngelmannComputer Science, Ecosystem, Education

A lot has happened this past week in our effort to build computer science education in Iowa — and nationally — to help address the gap in computer science offerings available in schools today. The backstory: getting computer science into schools Code.org is a global nonprofit, backed by some of the world’s largest tech companies, that teaches kids the fundamentals of computer science. If you ... Read More

Iowa educators learn how to teach computer science at Code.org’s TeacherCon

Samantha DahlbyComputer Science, Ecosystem, Education

Thirty-two Iowa teachers were surrounded by over 400 of their peers in Houston June 18th - 23rd. Looking at their faces, you may have thought they were all on vacation, but they were actually hard at work during TeacherCon Houston, the beginning of our year-long Computer Science Professional Learning Program. This will be the first year that the program is ... Read More

The state of Iowa’s innovation ecosystem: so much progress, yet so much more to do.

Eric EngelmannComputer Science, Ecosystem, Education, Startups

Last night, the NewBoCo team attended the annual Prometheus Awards put on by the Technology Association of Iowa (TAI). Having been a long-time member of the organization, and a current board member, I’ve been attending this event since the very beginning 12 years ago. Back then, it was maybe a hundred or so state leaders, technology leaders, and economic developers kind ... Read More

5 Reasons Why Education Startups Should Apply To ISA

Molly MonkEducation, Iowa Startup Accelerator, Startups

Two female students work on building a robot.
NewBoCo started out as just the Iowa Startup Accelerator, but we knew early on that it would take more than a startup accelerator to fulfill our mission: accelerating world-changing ideas, from Iowa. Startups need more than an accelerator to succeed, and ecosystems need more support than an accelerator alone can provide. That’s why we focused on introducing innovation into education ... Read More

Preparing for ISA 2016 Lift Off

Rob MerrittEcosystem, Education, Iowa Startup Accelerator, Startups

Locked in an office on calls from dawn until dusk for 25 days, Iowa Startup Accelerator Managing Director David Tominsky worked to whittle down 200 applicants to the top startups to put in front of investors. Thousands of emails, hundreds of hours on the phone, and one investor meeting later, teams have offers to join the ISA 2016 Cohort. We ... Read More

Growth is an epic ride!

Eric EngelmannAngel Investing, Corporate Innovation, Coworking, Ecosystem, Education, Internship, Marketing, Startups

NewBoCo and Iowa Startup Accelerator are my first nonprofit adventure. Having founded Geonetric in 1999, I remember the thrill of building something new and the euphoria of finding traction and things that work. And then, the tug of the thing taking off as it grows and holding it together as you add staff to meet the demand for services. It’s … Read More