Hack the Hood Summer 2022 Program Impact Report
This past summer, Hack the Hood delivered two programs serving 106 learners. Hustle: an introductory program, created for learners with little to no experience in tech; and Build, an intermediate Data Science program where learners ‘build’ upon their data and computational thinking skills.
Woven throughout Hack the Hood programming is a Tech for Justice curriculum that empowers learners to contextualize their learning through a socio-political lens and critically think about how technology can hurt or help communities of color, and how they can make an impact as future technologists. Programs offer a combination of virtual lectures, pair programming sessions, and career exploration opportunities. In addition to tech skill-building programs, Hack the Hood supports learners with a laptop, wifi assistance if needed, a $500 learning stipend, and a community of supporters rooting for their success!
Our Learners at a Glance
Summer 2022 Hustle Program
Hack the Hood’s Hustle program offers much insight into technology and data science. The lessons are all well thought out and provide a glimpse of careers and futuristic themes. Not only is there a stipend at the end, but you leave with coding skills that you may not have developed before.
-Summer 2022 Hustle Program Learner
The Hustle program is centered on building a strong learning community, student achievement, and empowerment. The technical curriculum focuses on basic coding skills in Python, various data types, functions, syntax and error handling. Hustle delivers essential skill-building for the engineering space such as agile principles, testing efficiencies and also introduces essential processes and skills for software development.
To measure the impact and success of our programs, learners complete a post-program survey to measure improvement of their technical and communication skills, ability to complete coding assignments and troubleshoot coding problems, understanding of and desire to use technology to better their communities, sense of belonging within the tech sector, and their intent to pursue a career in the tech sector.
After completing the Hustle program, learners self-reported increasing their technical skills, their ability to communicate about technology, and Python programming skills at a rate of 88% favorability.
Hack the Hood evaluates learners’ work with a three level rubric: benchmark for a minimal level of effort, novice for completed and mostly working code, and apprentice for complete and well working code applying all of the concepts taught to date. 89% of completed coding assignments from learners exhibited a novice or apprentice level.
Achieving novice level means that a learner has completed or attempted with some effort the coding assignment, while apprentice shows that a learner has completed all the requirements of the coding assignment and has gone above and beyond, demonstrating more advanced understanding and skill.
The Tech for Justice curriculum has a positive impact on the Black, Latinx, AAPI, and Indigenous learners that Hack the Hood serves. 98% of learners believe that tech can help better their communities, and that they can use data and technology for social good.
Cultivating relationships with peers, mentors and instructors is important for learners to see themselves in tech. Learners rated their sense of community and belonging in Hack the Hood and tech community at 94%.
Career exposure panels allow learners to explore the different pathways and career options in the tech sector. 100% of the learners indicated they learned something new about tech careers and 71% intend to pursue a career in technology.
Summer 2022 Build Program
The program was great! It helped me recall my Python skills, and helped me develop new connections, mainly with the professors and TAs. I also learned the basics of data science which was awesome. Lastly, I got to attend the wonderful career workshops every Thursday, which was awesome because I learned about a multitude of careers in tech, I just have to find my passion.
-Summer 2022 Build Program Learner
The Build curriculum delves into computational thinking and allows learners to build upon their Python and software skills including data selection, manipulation, wrangling, exploration, and visualization. Learners also explored APIs, various platforms and software for Data Science.
Like the Hustle program, Build learners completed a post-program survey and self-reported that the program had a positive impact on their technical and communication skills, sense of community and belongingness while in the program, commitment to Hack the Hood values, knowledge of career pathways, intent to pursue a career in the tech sector, and feeling supported on their learning journey. After completing the Build program, learners self-reported an increase in their technical skills, communication about technology, and programming in Python at a rate of 97%.
To foster community and teamwork while in the program, learners are assigned a peer learning group that meets once a week to troubleshoot and problem solve as a unit. 94% of learners self-reported feeling a sense of community and belongingness while in the program.
The Tech for Justice curriculum is fashioned after and in alignment with Hack the Hood’s values. While in the Build program, learners have the opportunity to discuss sustainability; the intersections of the environment and tech; and envision their own future and the future of tech. Post program, Build learners indicated their adoption, demonstration, and commitment to Hack the Hood values at 97%. 100% of learners value using tech for good.
After participating in the Build program and attending career development and exposure workshops facilitated by Hack the Hood staff, partners, and volunteers, 100% of learners gained knowledge about tech careers and navigating tech pathways and 89% of the learners plan on pursuing a career in tech or tech industry. Learners rated feeling supported in cultivating their identities and values in technological learning at 99%.
The Hack the Hood team is immensely proud of its summer learners as they hustled to gain and worked hard to build their tech skills!
Thank you to Moody's, BlackRock, Genesys, Capital One, Grafana, West Monroe, LegalZoom, Everlaw, New Relic, Celigo, Goldman Sachs, and Okta teams and volunteers for helping the Hack the Hood team to deliver 12 career development workshops to learners across all of the programs. And a special thank you to Carla Buggs, Lukmaan Bawazer, all the mentors, and resume review volunteers who continue to dedicate their time and support.
