Code Montana, the free computer programming course offered to middle school and high school students throughout the state, received a bit of an upgrade today, April 28. Entrepreneur Greg Gianforte who helped start Code Montana announced that the program was getting new funding as well as a new home.

"We're announcing today that Code Montana is going to reside at Montana Tech in Butte," Gianforte said. "It's still going to be available to all of the students in all of the high schools across the entire state, but the computer science department at Montana Tech is going to be the owner of the program."

The Gianforte Family Foundation set aside a $220,000 dollar grant to hire a staff member at Montana Tech. Gianforte says there are two great reasons why this high school program should be managed by a college.

"For those students who decide to pursue computer science in high school, they'll now get college credit, so that will help them when they get there," Gianforte said. "It's also the fact that the computer science department is going to hire a full time outreach coordinator, so the department can do out reach to high schools across the state."

Since it began in 2014 till yesterday, all of the outreach and coordination of Code Montana had been boot-strapped by volunteers. That effort appears to have paid off, in its first year, Code Montana had over 1,200 students involved in the course, which was well above the original goal.

 

More From KMMS-KPRK 1450 AM