CodeVA Needs Our Help, Our Community Needs CodeVA

In this the season of giving, I write to ask you to consider donating to "CodeVA," a cause I am passionate about, a cause that will not only give back to our community, but one which will give equally to ALL our children and which allows us to invest in a brighter future for ALL our children. 

Your support -- no matter how small -- will help CodeVA, a nonprofit education and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting Computer Science – coding – literacy in our schools. The organization's goal is  to train teachers and students.  One of my grandsons, who just turned 8,  took a coding class this past summer and he and his mother each had unbounded praise and enthusiasm for what he learned.  He wants to do it again next summer.

I know many of you already give generously to causes promoting literacy in our public schools, or to causes that seek to improve educational outcomes for children in at-risk communities. But even as we’ve all worked diligently on this issue, Computer Science literacy remains a looming education crisis facing our schools, our children and the economic well-being of our communities.

Computer science literacy is not just the ability to be a digital consumer, but to be a digital creator with know-how to make that technology do new things.  

Why give now? 

• Currently, less than one percent of Virginia’s children are taught this essential literacy in our schools.
• Meanwhile, more than 70 percent of jobs in fields like science, banking, technology, engineering – even jobs in that arts and retail sectors – are computer science jobs.
• These jobs are nearly unattainable without computer science literacy. Currently in Virginia, there are tens of thousands of jobs in all sectors of our economy left unfilled – or filled by foreign workers imported from other countries. 
•  Other nations, like England, much of Europe, India and China, where computer science literacy is taught from kindergarten through graduation. 

I believe in CodeVa.  Founded just last year and a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization, CodeVA already is having a profound impact on statewide education policy, and is diligently working to upgrade and integrate computer science literacy among Virginia's classroom teachers.

Rebecca and Chris Dovi are the heart and soul of this organization. Both come from backgrounds where they’ve established their commitment to making education better for our kids. Rebecca served as a Computer Science teacher and national expert on Computer Science curriculum for nearly two decades before co-founding CodeVA. Chris is a multiple award-winning journalist who has won several first-place awards from the Virginia Press Association for his excellent education reportage.  

For more information and to donate to this important cause, please call 440-7135.