After an extremely competitive selection process last fall, we’re proud to announce the winners of the Meteor Web Development Scholarship Program. This scholarship program, made possible through a partnership with the Flatiron School, a coding academy with online and in-person classes in New York City, awards 15 full-ride scholarships to high school-aged girls from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. From April 4 through June 24, 2016, these girls will be enrolled in The Flatiron School’s Intro to Web Development and Design program and will learn about HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and UI/UX design.

Diversity and inclusion has always been an important principle here at Meteor Development Group. In 2015, an underwhelming 5.8% of software engineers identified as female. This data point alone signals the need for greater gender diversity within the tech industry. This is why it’s so important to make computer science education more accessible to girls and women who are interested in software development and engineering.

Alexandria Ang, a winning student from The Bronx High School of Science, had this to say about coding: “Many people believe that web development is just one skill. Contrary to popular belief, it’s actually a ton of brain-building skills jumbled together. When you learn how to code, you unlock an entire kingdom of opportunities and skills that you never knew were related to coding at all. This intrigued me, and the enigma of coding really got to me.”

I’m personally excited about this scholarship program because it opens the door not only to new opportunities for these young women but also to new perspectives and innovations for us in the software industry. And maybe one day, one of the winners will come to work at Meteor!

Please join us in congratulating the Meteor Web Development Scholarship Program winners:

Alexandria Ang

Allysah Rodriguez

Atlantys Tunica-El

Emily Jung

Gabrielle Williams

Isabelle Levent

Kristen Izquierd

Maylee Dominguez

Michelle Hunnewell

Nadja Umlauf

Nancy Estrella

Nyasha Francis

Salome Bustamante

Shaniah Grant

Sowmya Patapati

Syndra Kydd-Hardy

We can’t wait to see what they do with their new web development skills!