Ada Developers Academy
Ada Developers Academy (Ada) is a year-long intensive school in software development for women and gender diverse people with no previous professional experience in computer programming.[1] The program is tuition-free, and students can apply for a low-interest microloan to meet living expenses during the year.
Ada Developers Academy | |
---|---|
Location | |
Seattle, Washington | |
Information | |
Type | Private |
Established | 2013 |
Founders | Elise Worthy, Scott Case, Susannah Malarkey |
Website | adadevelopersacademy |
The program is divided into 6 months of classroom instruction and a 5-month paid internship with a Seattle tech company. The first six months in the classroom focuses on Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript (including AngularJS[1]), HTML and CSS, and computer science fundamentals.[2] The last five months is an internship placement.[3] Interns are placed at sponsor companies including Amazon, Chef, Concur, EMC² Isilon Storage Division, EnergySavvy, Expedia, Getty Images, Marchex, Microsoft, Moz, Nordstrom, Redfin, Tune, Substantial, Zillow, and more.
Cohorts
In its first cohort, 2013-2014, Ada Developers Academy took on 16 students. All of the first cohort obtained full-time job offers in software development before the course ended, and two of them received job offers from Amazon.com. Salaries for the job offers the students received averaged $75,000.[1]
Cohort | Start Date | Applicants | Accepted |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 2013 | 107 | 16 |
2 | 2014 | 190 | 24 |
3 | May 2015 | 206 | 24 |
4 | Sep 2015 | 272 | 24 |
5 | Feb 2016 | 306 | 24 |
6 | Aug 2016 | 399 | 48 |
7 | Feb 2017 | 356 | 48 |
8 | Aug 2017 | 475 | TBD |
Funding
Ada began as a project of Seattle's Technology Alliance and is funded through company sponsorship, individual donors, and public sources.[4] Ada now operates as a non-profit through its financial sponsor, Third Sector New England.[5] Ada's company sponsors include Amazon.com, Expedia, Zillow, and Chef. Sponsors provide input into the course's curriculum, and mentoring and internships for the students. Sponsoring companies such as Expedia stated that they participate in the program in order to recruit great talent, and also in order to improve their diversity.[1]
References
- Soper, Taylor (22 January 2015). "Closing the gender gap: Ada Developer's Academy helps women learn programming skills for free". GeekWire. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
- Romano, Benjamin (24 September 2014). "Ada Developers Academy Offers Women a Way into Tech Boom". XConomy.com. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
- Romano, Benjamin (8 August 2014). "Seattle Roundup: Rover, Tune, Rhapsody, Rightside, Zillow, Ada". XConomy.com. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
- Grauer, Yael (26 September 2013). "Free Software Developer School for Women Launches". Dice News. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- "Third Sector New England". TSNE. 21 July 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.