Amazon announced that it will fund computer science programs in over 1000 schools across the U.S. The drive is part of its Amazon Future Engineer program.
Giving Every Child the Chance to Study Computer Science
Over 700 of the more than 1000 high schools signed up to the scheme are Title 1 schools. Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer at Amazon said: “We want to ensure that every child, especially those from underprivileged communities, has an opportunity to study computer science.”
Participating schools will offer Intro to Computer Science and AP Computer Science classes via curriculum provider, Edhesive. All the students that participate in Amazon Future Engineer will be given free membership to AWS Educate. This gives them access to the AWS Cloud and content teaching them about cloud computing.
Amazon’s Four Year Project
Amazon Future Engineer launched in 2018. It is a four-year program aimed at getting more children equipped with computer science skills. Amazon Future Engineer aims to engage 100,000 underprivileged students in 2,000 low-income high schools across the U.S in computer science education each year. 100 students each year will be offered four-year $10,000 scholarships. There will also be offers of paid internships at Amazon.
Amazon has also donated $10 million to organizations that promote computer science and STEM education across the U.S. In total Amazon is putting $50 million into STEM/computer science education.