Last year founding partner Google opened its first Midwest Code Next Lab at Michigan Central, and the program continues to grow. Code Next Detroit offers a free computer science education program for neighborhood high schoolers, with professional coaches teaching the skills to start careers in technology.\u202f <\/p>\n
The program focuses on Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students, and demonstrates the value of collaboration by offering hands-on training with state-of-the-art tech for Detroit teens, from laptops to virtual reality. Students have access to Google mentors and other industry experts, and they drive their own projects, ranging from designing and programming a robot to 3D printing an Android chess set. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo say I love coming to Code Next is an understatement,\u201d said ninth-grader Israel Muniz. \u201cWhen I read the initial information before applying, I thought it was too good to be true.\u201d <\/p>\n
The program, currently housed at the Factory at Michigan Central, will move into the renovated Michigan Central Station in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main recruitment goal for the upcoming months is to bring 50 to 60 more students into the program, and we hope to have 100 total students at the beginning of fall,\u201d said Nando Felten, Code Next Detroit\u2019s community manager.\u202f <\/p>\n