Summer is not always slow in Athens. In June and July, Four Athens held two week-long coding camps for kids and several weekend workshops for all ages, while gearing up to expand after school code clubs in the fall. Four Athens Education Director, Sean Reid is leading the Four Athens initiative to provide tech education opportunities for area youth and adults that appeal to a range of interests, learning styles, and technical skills.

In addition to upcoming Saturday workshops for kids on creating web-comics and playing music through web browsers, a new introductory course for adults on Web Fundamentals is now available in August as a preparatory class for the software development courses that begin in September. Earlier this year, Goodwill Industries supported four students in a beginners code class as part of their job readiness initiative.

“We're thrilled to partner with Goodwill to promote job readiness in Athens through our adult tech education programs, and connect with people in the community who can benefit the most from our courses,” said Reid. A donation from Georgia Power supported initial efforts at Four Athens last year to provide programming and software development courses for adults. Since then, several new coders have been successfully linked to jobs with local tech companies.

This fall, Four Athens will continue to coordinate after school code clubs, adding several elementary and middle schools in the area to the roster, as well as host monthly weekend workshops on various topics to keep kids engaged with tech in a variety of ways. More information about the range of tech education opportunities available for kids and adults through Four Athens is at www.fourathens.com/classes.