Arnell Milhouse is the founder of IntraCity Geeks, a tech education nonprofit in Providence. Most recently, Milhouse announced the launch of CareerDevs Computer Science Academy, a new for-profit arm of IntraCity Geeks geared toward adults and centered in a rigorous computer science curriculum.
Milhouse spoke to Providence Business News about the goals of CareerDevs and what distinguishes it from other tech training models.
PBN: How do you see the CareerDevs Computer Science Academy complementing the IntraCity Geeks mission?
MILHOUSE: CareerDevs helps by ensuring that we maintain a laser focus on our customers adding value, and it provides a sustainable path to revenue generation so that the organization isn’t entirely beholden to charitable foundations and grants. Together they are two hemispheres of a brain, carrying out different yet equally vital functions. IntraCity Geeks representing our right brain and it’s also our equivalent of the Roman longsword, while CareerDevs as our short sword Gladius.
This separation of concerns is critically essential because so many existing non-traditional computer science education organizations fail to get their boots on the ground and into the trenches. This detail oriented function of CareerDevs is what job seekers need, and hiring corporations to want. You can’t pivot fast enough with a long-sword.
PBN: How does the CareerDevs model distinguish itself from other coding boot camps? What can Academy students expect to accomplish after completing the program?
MILHOUSE: CareerDevs is different than coding boot camps because it is not a boot camp. CareerDevs is an incubator for innovation-driven software development, education, and entrepreneurship. I don’t know of any other boot camps that have these three interdisciplinary pillars.
Our developers-in-training gain a fair amount of instruction in algorithm design, problem-solving and data structures, which are things that are sorely missing with most boot camps. During ANY developer interview, candidates will undoubtedly be asked to demonstrate their grasp of these important constructs.
We develop software for companies, startups as well as established entities. Each course is divided into four sprints, and students who complete and demonstrate two full-stack projects, before or during the second sprint are invited to work on an external facing/real-world project. These projects assignments are usually with pay. TA’s who have proven themselves to be intermediate level developers, lead intermediate-level students on said projects. Entry-level students are assigned to shadow a team without pay.
Our CareerDevs Computer Science OnRamp course has an entry-level track as well as an intermediate. To further tailor the course to learner needs, the class is divided into sub-groups where students/groups can progress at a comfortable pace. The groups that move ahead work with the teams that are falling behind. We believe that to teach is to learn twice, and it fosters a self-tending communal environment.
Our courses are recursive learning modules. Many moons ago, I worked as a national, traveling technology training instructor and noticed that in fast paced training environments students without prior background subject matter experience had low levels of retention. I augmented my training by having students re-learn a lesson as many times as needed until they became proficient. There’s more to it, but that’s the gist.
Our rigorous entry standards are another key differentiator. To get into CareerDevs, students have to meet individual pre-class goals and code consistently for four weeks. We consider this sprint to be our pre-season. The chief purpose of CaeerDevs is to produce qualified candidates above anything else. High enrollment numbers are not our greatest priority.
PBN: Workplace diversity, particularly in the tech industry, is a subject increasingly in the spotlight. What role do organizations like IntraCity Geeks and CareerDevs playing in improving the balance of opportunity?
MILHOUSE: IntraCity Geeks and CareerDevs is following in the steps of Governor Raimondo and her CS4RI initiative which is doing an excellent job regarding diversity and inclusion.
America stands alone in the world regarding its strength, ingenuity and the results of our Great Experiment. I believe that we have succeeded, unlike any other nation because of our diversity and not despite it. Numerous studies document how diversity improves our decision making and makes us smarter. One of the goals of IntraCity Geeks is to elucidate this fact by building a jobs and entrepreneurial pipeline of diverse and skilled individuals.
Our inaugural CareerDevs OnRamp class receives high marks regarding diversity. Thirty-six percent of our students are women, and 41 percent consist of a wide range of people of color.
PBN: How will the CareerDevs Startup Incubator extend the Academy’s impact in Rhode Island and elsewhere?
MILHOUSE: Our goal is to do our part in helping build and establish the Ocean State as the Silicon Rhode (a term which we coined). One of the greatest challenges facing innovation-driven startups is technical founders. To enter the CareerDevs Startup Incubator, you have to complete our CS OnRamp Academy or demonstrate equivalent skills.
During the OnRamp Academy, each student has to complete several full-stack projects. With at least one of them focused on a problem that they have identified in the world for which they are passionate. The students apply a rapid sprint process where they have to build and test their prototype and then run it as an early stage venture. The projects evolve throughout the class, and the goal is to gain traction in addition to applying their classroom learning.
Each project is required to be innovation-driven, striving to incorporate intellection property, process improvements, key metric monitoring and additional hallmarks of disruptive startups.
The projects with the greatest traction by the end of the OnRamp Course are invited to participate in our incubator. This is natural selection at its geekiest.
PBN: What makes Rhode Island an ideal place for the high-tech industrial revolution IntraCity Geeks and CareerDevs aim to build toward?
MILHOUSE: Rhode Island has the perfect mix of primordial ingredients to become the next big bang in global startup communities. The relatively low cost of living, short end-to-end distances from one end of the state to the next, a burgeoning tech talent pipeline, great arts communities, tech-friendly government leaders, diversity, low crime, community friendly police, proximity to Boston and New York, world-class educational institutions, and so much more qualifies the Silicon Rhode as the best place to grow and drive thriving startups.
Kaylen Auer is a PBN contributing writer.
