NI Named Legacy Funder of the Code2College Vision 2024 Initiative

NI awards $400,000 to help Code2College build equitable pathways to STEM careers for underserved students

AUSTIN, Texas – Mar. 30, 2021 – NI (NASDAQ: NATI) today announced its collaboration with Code2College and a donation of $400,000 to support Vision 2024, a program developed and led by Code2College to support and place 200 Black and Latinx women in STEM roles over the next four years.

 

Code2College is a career preparatory and college access program dedicated to developing a pipeline of diverse, homegrown talent by providing historically excluded high school students with access to three cornerstones of success: technical skills education, STEM industry exposure and practical experience. Through NI’s donation, the largest financial investment in Vision 2024 to date, Code2College expects to place over 50 Black and Latinx women into STEM roles by 2024 and develop the infrastructure needed to replicate and scale these efforts to serve thousands more students looking to attend college and enter STEM careers. NI employees will volunteer as instructors to students, and the company will host technical skills workshops to provide them with hands-on learning opportunities.

 

“With NI’s support, we have the unique opportunity to accelerate the Code2College program, igniting the desire in employers across the country to connect with students and serve tens of thousands of students who lack the access or opportunity to pursue technical careers,” said Matt Stephenson, CEO and cofounder of Code2College. “My hope is that NI and Code2College’s work will inspire the rest of the tech ecosystem to join us in this effort by enhancing students’ preparation for technical, high-paying careers, which can ultimately help close the gender and racial wealth gap in our society.”

 

“At NI, we believe engineers are uniquely suited to help us solve our most pressing global challenges. A diverse workforce is the best way to develop solutions that serve all people, and providing early access to technical education and experience is essential to making that happen,” said Omid Sojoodi, vice president of Software at NI and Advisory Board member of Code2College. “We’re honored to support Code2College and remain committed to providing the resources, expertise and volunteerism needed to make STEM-based learning more accessible to underserved students.”

 

The collaboration between NI and Code2College follows the February launch of NI’s 2030 Corporate Impact Strategy, Engineering Hope, which puts forth a goal to increase access to STEM education among underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students. Additionally, NI plans to hire two paid interns through Code2College over the summer to provide them with increased practical experience.

 

Code2College plans to place 75 interns in hands-on technical roles with leading technology companies this summer, which is a 300% increase over 2020. These training opportunities currently focus on students in over 10 major national markets and will scale to five additional areas by Fall 2021. For more information on Code2College’s Spring programming, visit www.code2college.org

 

About Code2College

Code2College is building a national network of diverse, homegrown technical talent by harnessing the latent volunteer talent in the tech ecosystem to equip high school students — who are mostly Black, brown and girls — with viable, in-demand technical and professional skills, as well as provide opportunities to enter paid, summer technical internships with leading tech companies while still in high school. We are the national leader for college and STEM career access for historically excluded high school students, and we continue to use coding as a vehicle for future success.

About NI

At NI, we bring together the people, ideas and technology so forward thinkers and creative problem solvers can take on humanity’s biggest challenges. From data and automation to research and validation, we provide the tailored, software-connected systems engineers and enterprises need to Engineer Ambitiously™ every day.

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