It may have been a hot one this summer, but your support for NewBoCo made some pretty ~cool~ things happen!
But seriously though. Support from our volunteers, donors, and sponsors made it possible for:
- More than 500 innovators to attend EntreFEST in Cedar Rapids! EntreFEST’s unique conference + festival experience helps people make the connections they need to move their ideas forward in our region. We received excellent reviews from our attendees about their experience — it really made a difference in so many people’s lives. Thank you so much to everyone who volunteered to make this event amazing!
- More than 50 nonprofit supporters to connect at our brand new nonprofit meetup! As a preview to our Social Good Accelerator launching this fall, we began a meetup series for anyone interested in learning how to take action to support nonprofit organizations in our region. Anyone from the community interested in learning about area nonprofits and how they can get engaged to help them thrive here in Iowa are encouraged to attend. We’ve already seen great connections made at each meeting!
- 76 educators to get free professional training on how to teach computer science in their classrooms! Last year, we trained 32 teachers through our partnership with Code.org in our summer workshop. Those 32 teachers went on to teach more than 1,700 kids a computer science class in the 2017–2018 school year alone. Because of support from our network and the state, we were able to more than DOUBLE the number of educators we reached this year. We will never pass the cost of this training onto Iowa’s teachers, so we’re looking to diversify support for this program to continue its sustainability into the future.
- 8 students to start their journey to becoming a programmer through DeltaV Code School’s second cohort! DeltaV is an intensive, 20-week program where we help adults make a career switch to a fulfilling and higher paying career in computer programming. It can be grueling, but last year, 100% of our graduates were employed within two months with an average starting salary of $58K.
- 71 kids to go to our Summer STEM Challenge Camps! Because of your support, we brought back our hands-on coding, entrepreneurship, and leadership summer camps for 2nd-10th graders. Students were able to do everything from a “Mini Shark Tank” class where they invented a new business to our extremely popular “Tech Trash or Treasure” class with the Solid Waste Agency where they learned about the environmental impact of of new technology and devices entering the market faster than we can wear out our old equipment.
We couldn’t make this impact on our community without our network of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. You make all of this possible. Thank you so much from every one of us here at NewBoCo, and if you’re ever in the neighborhood, drop by for Whiskey Friday so we can thank you in person!
This fall, you can look forward to:
- New teams in the Iowa Startup Accelerator, and the official launch of our Social Good Accelerator program! The Fall Batch will be announced on September 10th — that’s less than a month away!
- New teams in our next Intrapreneur Academy cohort! The demand for our first cohort was so high that we’re launching a second one in October. If you think this year-long innovation training program could be right for you, shoot us an email at innovation@newbo.co. Spots are filling up quickly!
- CoderDojo coming back from its summer hiatus! On the first and third Saturdays of the month from 1:00–3:00 p.m., we host this free program for young people in Kindergarten through 5th grade to learn tech skills — everything from programming robots to developing websites. If you want to be a mentor at CoderDojo, please email samantha@newbo.co. We’d love to have your help!
- And more!