Students Compete In 12-Hour Hackathon At Holberton Tulsa Campus

This President’s Day, students are competing in the Black Futures Hackathon, a 12-hour-long computer science competition.

Software engineering school Holberton Tulsa and non-profit Urban Coders Guild teamed up to host the event and celebrate Black History Month. Close to 50 students from different grades and schools are working together on challenges throughout the day to develop skills in computer science and teamwork. While many students are out of school for Presidents Day, these kids are hard at work. The Black Futures Hackathon started at 8 a.m. Monday and is going on until 8 p.m.

Mikeal Vaughn is the Founder and Executive Director of Urban Coders Guild, a non-profit devoted to expanding access to coding and computer science education. The organization holds events like this throughout the year to introduce students to the field.

"I definitely want them to experience a bit of an introduction to computer science, but I also want them to really start to develop their own STEM identities, understanding who they are or who they could be as a kid who is learning STEM and STEAM,” Vaughn said.

The event kicked off with team-building exercises and in the afternoon, the students will build and code robots. The Hackathon wraps up with obstacle courses and an awards ceremony, where teams have the chance to win cash prizes.

"Coding is one thing, but having them as part of a community, having them sense community is equally as important and maybe more so,” Vaughn said.

The students are learning computer skills and life skills that go beyond the competition.

Urban Coders Guild

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