IntraCity Geeks to hold second Providence Code Night with Mayor

PROVIDENCE MAYOR JORGE O. Elorza, middle, is seen during Providence Code Night with the Mayor on May 11 sponsored by IntraCity Geeks. / COURTESY INTRACITY GEEKS
PROVIDENCE MAYOR JORGE O. Elorza, middle, is seen during Providence Code Night with the Mayor on May 11 sponsored by IntraCity Geeks. / COURTESY INTRACITY GEEKS

PROVIDENCE – IntraCity Geeks will hold its second Providence Code Night with the Mayor on June 8 at 444 Westminster St., according to founder and CEO Arnell Milhouse.
The first Code Night was held May 11 and enabled participants to learn how to code alongside Mayor Jorge O. Elorza. The sessions are free.
Milhouse said that event – held at City Hall – was so successful that they had to move the venue to Westminster Street to allow for more people. Next week’s event will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
Elorza, in a news release, said he was pleased that the code night was held.
“Coding is the future, and it is important that our students are prepared for the new wave of high-tech and STEM jobs that will become available as technology advances,” Elorza said.
Milhouse said the group is doing everything it can to teach Rhode Islanders how to code so that the state can transition away from “low-wage and low-skill labor reliance.”
“Careers in technology (STEM) have the highest [return on investment] among all employment categories and R.I. needs a pipeline of adults as well as students that will help to fill this high-demand and high-wage job sector. We are also very encouraged by our partnerships with Microsoft and Udemy. They bring a tremendous amount of value to our efforts,” Milhouse said.

Milhouse said participants will learn cutting-edge and in-demand web development skills such as JavaScript, Jquery, Php, MySQL, HTML and CSS as they learn to build more than 10 websites over a period of four to six months.

A new group begins learning every 30 days and the attendees from previous sessions will assist the learners from each new session. Code nights will be held on the second Monday of the month, Milhouse said.
Milhouse said the first “Code Night with the Mayor” event was oversubscribed three times over; there were 35 participants. Next week, he expects at least 50 people in attendance.

He said the majority of attendees have never coded before, but have a strong interest in learning. Each attendee received a $200 online Udemy web development course for free, along with the chance to receive up to $30,000 in software, services and benefits from Microsoft, he said.

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Meg Evans, manager of social innovation at Udemy, said, “We are thrilled to support the important work of IntraCity Geeks and provide online web development courses for Providence Code Night with the Mayor.”

Contact info@intracitygeeks.org to register.

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