CENG Received AI4ALL and LACF Grant for Offering Free Coding Classes
Written by Isabella Borkovic & Michelle Zhu, Juniors at Los Altos High School
The Computer Engineers of the Next Generation Club is now a three-time recipient of the AI4ALL Community Impact Grant grant. Due to previous grants provided by AI4ALL, the club was able to offer two concurrent coding classes for students in Los Altos and Mountain View to serve even more members of the community.
In addition to the AI4ALL grant, CENG was recently awarded a $1,000 grant by Los Altos Community Foundation (LACF). LACF offers community grants that aim to provide organizations with the resources to help the local community.
The CENG club is run by a group of Los Altos High Schools students and our mission is to provide Computer Science education to historically underrepresented minorities by offering free coding classes at local elementary schools. This goal aligns with LACF's mission to address the local needs of the lack of free STEM education in the community.
Members of CENG seek to give back to their own communities and local schools by volunteering in its classes. Instead of supporting the classes with their volunteers' funds, CENG can use the grant money it has received from LACF and AI4ALL to afford the expenses of the classes.
CENG hopes that the funds it has received can be used to supplement further improvement and expansion of its classes in the future. The club will continue to offer 8 seven-week free after-school coding classes of Scratch, JavaScript, and Python in Mountain View and Los Altos elementary schools, but will also use the money to develop existing programs; this includes but is not limited to enriching our CENG Online Academy curriculum, organizing the Monta Loma Hour of Code in December 2019, and improving our Junior Mentor program and Inspire program. CENG also hopes to develop new and innovative initiatives and plan to kick start our Train the Trainers program in the upcoming year. For more information, check out cengclass.org