Scholarships We Love: Turing School October Scholarships

Table of Contents

• Diversity in Tech
• The Scholarship
• What It Takes
• Why We Think It’s Awesome

Turing School of Software and Design is a 7-month, full-time, immersive bootcamp located in Denver, Colorado. Turing's Ruby on Rails focused bootcamp features four distinctive  6-week modules covering Ruby fundamentals, Ruby web applications, agile methodologies, client side JavaScript and much more. We’re breaking down Turing’s latest scholarship, available to their "1510 cohort" which begins October 12, 2015.

Diversity in Tech

Teams of employees that are comprised of ethnically diverse people have greater problem solving capabilities. Employing peoples from different backgrounds promotes innovation and growth. It is detrimental to technological progress if our tech workforce is a homogenous one. With this knowledge in hand coding bootcamps have been attempting to even out the scale of underrepresented people in tech by easing the cost of entry into their programs.

Information is Beautiful recently published a very telling infographic of the employee breakdown by gender and race within the countries top tech firms. It paints a very clear picture that there is a serious issue with cultural diversity in tech. “The most graphic un-equalizer of all, though, is gender. Considering that “chicks rule” on social media, it’s strange that at employee level, social networks can look more like old boys’ networks,” reported Information is Beautiful.

So while women, and people of all ethnicities historically played vital roles in progressing computer science their current representation in the American tech scene is subpar.  In an effort to change the tides  and promote diversity Turing recently announced a scholarship for people who “identify as a member of at least one group that is underrepresented in technology (e.g. Black, Latino/a, Native American, Pacific Islander, Woman, LGBTQ, or veteran).”

The Scholarship

The scholarship includes a $4000 tuition waiver. Combined with Turing’s tuition deferment program it’ll allow students to start class for as little as $1000. “In July, we launched our first ever scholarship program for women. “We know there are some things we can’t change, but we are committed to accomplishing what we can. Let’s start with access to an unsurpassed education and build a community together. We’ll help you form a support network, connect you with mentors, and stand with you as you launch and grow your career.”

What It Takes

• Apply to Turing at: http://apply.turing.io no later than September 1, 2015.
• Be accepted and commit to the October cohort, which starts on October 12, 2015
• A series of three essays (<300 words) covering, (1) what motivated the applicant to embark on a career in programming (2), a description of a project they aspire to complete within the next five years, and (3) a description of financial barriers and how the scholarship will impact their career in coding.

Why We Think It’s Awesome

Turing School of Software and Design is unique amongst the booming field of coding bootcamps. The mere length of their program ensures students graduate with solid, comprehensive, and exercisable development skills. Meetups, bootcamps, and scholarships for underrepresented coders have only been growing in number. Turing is playing their part in easing the entry requirements so that people of any background, identity, gender and race may enrich themselves at their bona fide institution and in return, help transform the tech landscape as a whole.

Want to learn more about Turing School of Software and Design’s scholarship? Check out their School Page on Course Report!