URBAN TXT: Teens Exploring Technology

Non-profit OrganizationsCalifornia, United States11-50 Employees

URBAN Teens Exploring Technology (TXT), encourages inner city African American and Latino teenage males to become catalysts of change in urban communities. We see technology as a tool that can promote positive youth development & leadership, ultimately paving the pathway to higher education in Science, Technology Engineering, Math (STEM) majors and careers for youth. We work year-round to develop young men of color (ages 12-18) from South Los Angeles and Watts into a capable, new generation of community and technology leaders. Through our academy, TXT Students (TXTers) plan, design, and develop web/phone applications and hardware to solve community problems and/or to meet needs in the marketplace. TXTers develop problem solving skills, collaboration, leadership, self-confidence, project management and communication. Additionally, TXTers, with the instruction and guidance of professionals, college mentors and their peer-to-peer learning environment, become proficient coders in languages such as HTML/CSS, JavaScript, iOS, and drupal.

Through our Summer Programming Academy, where our students are introduced and instructed in a number of programming languages, are connected with college mentors, are able to hear from Tech company CEOS, venture capitalists and the like, are able to create their own products through all that they learn; Hack-a-thons, after-school programs and the launch of South Los Angeles’ first hacker space (The Cube), TxT serves hundreds of students from Watts and South Los Angeles annually. 

Read the LA Times and Ourweekly articles on our Demo Day; an event where, for the first time in history, a teen tech startup from South Los Angeles received seed funding:

Los Angeles Times article: 
“Breaking Socioeconomic codes at computer camp” http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0803-teenage-tech-20140803-story.html

OurWeekly Articles:
“Teen Tech Teams vie for Seed Funding”: http://ourweekly.com/news/2014/aug/14/teen-tech-teams-vie-seed-funding

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