The social media company, Snap, announced Wednesday it is giving Georgia State University $5 million as part of a nationwide effort to prepare Black and Latinx Americans for careers as computer science teachers.
“This generous gift aligns with Georgia State’s mission – to continue to level the playing field by advocating for diversity, equity and inclusion while contributing to student college to career transitions in all fields,” said Georgia State President M. Brian Blake. “We are excited to partner with Snap on this important initiative.”
Black and Hispanic Americans are underrepresented as computer science educators, some statistics show. Hispanics and Blacks make up, respectively, 9.5% and 7.1% of computer science teachers in the United States, according to Zippia, a job placement company. Blacks make up 13% of the U.S. population while 18.5% of Americans are Hispanic/Latinx, U.S. Census Bureau data shows.
Snap is part of a new coalition of 30 companies, experts and researchers who’ve partnered to launch the Action to Catalyze Tech Report, an effort to address disparities in diversity, equity and inclusion in the computer science industry. The goal of this part of the initiative is to support at least 1,000 new teachers a year. Zippia estimates there are roughly 4,300 computer science teachers nationwide.
Snap is also contributing $5 million to California State University Dominguez Hills. The University of Florida and University of Texas at El Paso will each receive $5 million from philanthropist Ken Griffin, founder and chief executive officer of Citadel, and Hopper Dean Foundation, respectively.
