In January, Four Athens launched the first of its afterschool tech education programs for area middle schools. In partnership with local education leaders and business owners, the first 8-week software development class began January 12th at Clarke Middle, introducing students to basic programming skills by building a simple game. Since then, two more “Code Camps” have been slated to begin in February and March, at St. Joseph Catholic Parish School and Hilsman Middle. Full and partial scholarships have been made available to students through the generous support of Georgia Power and donations from other local businesses and individuals.

Jim Flannery, Four Athens Executive Director, said, “The opportunity to bring local education, business, and tech professionals together to give children in Athens the chance to explore their natural curiosity about technology and how it works is a key part of our efforts to create a tech hub here in Athens. Kids have an ability to grasp basic concepts and run with them where technology is involved, and giving them the opportunity to do that has immediate advantages in terms of developing problem-solving skills and logical cognitive processes, as well as later in life in the job market.”

Since its founding three years ago, Four Athens has worked to build the startup community in Athens and nurture tech-based businesses to grow this sector of the local economy. That effort includes education and development opportunities to prepare the current and future workforce for careers in the tech field.

Four Athens also provides introductory and intermediate programming classes for adults, as well as weekend workshops and skill-building sessions throughout the year. Stay up to date with all the offerings on the Four Athens events calendar at http://www.fourathens.com/events/.

More information about Four Athens youth education activities are at http://www.fourathens.com/athenscodecamp/.