Code To Success

Five years ago this month, we were recruiting the first class of students to enter The Academy For Software Engineering (AFSE), NYC’s first public high school dedicated to studying software engineering. A lot has happened in those five years; AFSE opened, AFSE attracted a great faculty and student body, AFSE built a modern curriculum to teach software engineering to a diverse student body, AFSE became one of the best performing high schools in NYC, AFSE inspired NYC to do CS4All, and, last spring, AFSE graduated its first class.

To say that AFSE has been a success would be an understatement. It is one of the finest high schools in NYC, often competing for students with the likes of Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, and Bronx Science.

The initial funding for AFSE came from the Gotham Gal and me. Then, when we started CSNYC, it took over supporting AFSE. Last year, AFSE took over the responsibility of raising funds for itself and did its first fundraiser.

It’s second annual fundraiser, called Code To Success, will be held on Thursday, March 16 from 7-10pm at Yext’s NYC Offices. I am hoping some of you would like to attend and support this incredible high school.

The school has set a goal of raising $100,000 which will allow AFSE to continue to provide the following resources which are not funded by the NYC Department of Education to its students:

• Each student is matched with a professional, college-educated mentor from iMentor for all 4 years of high school. This means an email each week, an in-person meeting each month,  and a go-to person for each phase of high school. In the past, mentors have been a key resource for assisting AFSE students with SAT preparation, completing college applications, and applying for financial aid, which many of our students are the first in their families to apply for.
• Each student receives personalized college counseling through junior and senior year, as well as financial support for SAT/ACT exams, public and private college application fees, college visits and college deposits.
• Each student who is on track for high school graduation but not on track for college graduation is invited to participate in an intensive OneGoal course for the last two years of high school and first year of college.
• Each student has access to job shadowing, internships, and other work-based learning experiences to build their personal resumes and apply their learning in a real world context.

The Gotham Gal and I are supporting this fundraiser and we hope some of you will choose to do the same. Visit fundAFSE.splashthat.com to buy your tickets or donate and help AFSE continue to succeed.