BlogWhat's better than Black Hat? Competitive Black Hat. What's better than competitive Black Hat? Competitive Black Hat for charity!
ExtraHop and Security Weekly are partnering up for Red vs. Blue: Compete for a Cause. From August 7th through August 8th, players will compete to earn points for their respective teams in order to win a $10,000 donation from ExtraHop to their associated charity.
The Blue Team, led by Security Weekly CEO Matt Alderman, will play for one of our favorite forces of good—Code.org! Without further ado:
Tell us a little about your organization. What's your mission statement?
Code.org is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities. Our vision is that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science, just like biology, chemistry or algebra. We also provide the leading curriculum for K-12 computer science in the largest school districts in the United States and we also organizes the annual Hour of Code campaign, which has engaged 15% of all students in the world.
If there were one thing you wish more people understood about what your organization does, what would it be?
We work to bring computer science into schools because we believe computer science is fundamental! We know that computer science—and computational thinking overall—involves much more than sitting alone at a desk and writing lines of code. Not only is computer science deeply creative, collaborative and fun, it touches every other field. Whether you want to study to be an artist, designer, author, project manager, sales associate or a software developer, you can benefit from basic knowledge of computing science. The field is as diverse as our students who study it.
What's something Code.org has done of which you're particularly proud?
2018 was a big year for us, and we're particularly proud of our impact on the number of students who gained access for the first time to learning computer science. We broke over 1 million teachers who signed up for an account on Code.org, along with 36 million students. Code.org classrooms also achieved perfect gender balance, and 48% of our students are students of color. Forty-seven percent of our students are in high needs schools. Our network of 64 regional partners across the country helped prepare more than 86,000 K-12 teachers to teach CS in their classrooms. We can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings!
You've received a personal call (we know, right?). It's the mothership!
Your answer will determine the fate of the Earth, so choose your words wisely. Why should the Blue Team win?
Go Team Blue! Team Blue should win because we're definitely going to have the most spunk and spirit. But truthfully, a win for us means a win for the computer science education movement as a whole and more importantly, students around the world. We're just a small part of this incredible community, and we have many partners, donors, advocates and supporters (like you all!) who make it possible to give all students the opportunity to learn and change their futures.
One last thing: how can people support your cause?
Host an Hour of Code and inspire students who have no experience with computer science! Hosting is easy even if you aren't a programmer yourself, and there are plenty of handy resources on the Hour of Code website. Or write to your local school and ask them to offer computer science!
