Introducing Prism Shift, D.C.'s Women-Only Coding Bootcamp from Launch Academy

Washington, DC, July 13, 2017 --(PR.com)-- Launch Academy, an immersive full-stack coding bootcamp with locations in Boston and Philadelphia, is expanding to Washington, D.C. this fall with Prism Shift, the bootcamp’s first program just for women. The program, taught by women for women, welcomes trans women, genderqueer women, and non-binary people who primarily identify as women. Lasting 18 weeks, the Prism Shift coding bootcamp features eight weeks of remote pre-work and 10 weeks on campus, as well as curriculum covering inclusion, mentorship, and career navigation. The program will also host networking events, skill-building seminars, and guest speakers to bring the local women’s coding community together.

Although women make up half of the total U.S. college-educated workforce, as of 2013, only 19.9% and 28.1% work as software developers and web developers, respectively (https://nsf.gov/statistics/2016/nsb20161/#/). The gender gap in STEM has been widely publicized, but all too often, public discourse treats this gap as the problem, rather than a symptom of more deeply rooted systemic problems in education and the culture at large. Prism Shift aims to reduce the barriers and gender-based challenges women face when starting out in tech careers, and also provide mentor relationships and insight to help students in future endeavors. Jesse Norris, Prism Shift’s Experience Manager, has played a crucial role in building the program from the ground up and believes it will allow “one portion of historically marginalized individuals to enter the tech scene with fewer barriers and start down the road of a successful career.” She hopes that Prism Shift alumnae, in turn, will “work to reduce barriers for others in their future workspaces. It's the start of a ripple effect to make the tech scene more inclusive.”

Founded in Boston in 2012, Launch Academy has a total of 547 graduates over the course of 16 Boston cohorts and its first Philadelphia cohort, with 92% of graduating students who were job seekers between 11/10/14 and 10/28/16 obtaining full-time, non-temporary jobs in their field of study. These jobs include front end developer/engineer, junior developer/software engineer, lead programmer/engineer, QA engineer, Ruby/Rails developer, software developer/engineer, and technical analyst. The Prism Shift coding bootcamp’s first cohort will prepare 18 women for roles in tech; tuition is $15,500. Applications to the program are now open and live at https://launchacademy.com/enrollments/v1/locations/washington.