The  Crossroads 2017 conference presented by Infosys Foundation USA was held May 23-25, 2017 in San Francisco. Kids Code Mississippi co-founder, Randy Lynn, was among three attendees from Mississippi at the conference. In this blog series, Randy relates his impressions of the conference as a first-time attendee:   Now in its third year, the Infosys Foundation USA Crossroads...Read More

The next session focused on makerspaces, a concept which is in its infancy in Mississippi, but seeing wider adoption in California and other technology-focused states. The session was moderated by Ken Montgomery, the executive director of Design Tech High School, a tech focused public school in the San Mateo Union school district of California within...Read More

Session 3: Decoding Diversity The third session I attended brought the issue of diversity to the forefront with a panel lineup moderated by Felix Flores of #YesWeCode. (Kids Code Mississippi partnered with #YesWeCode in 2015 to put on a hackathon for 100 minority students in Jackson in 2015.) Panelists included Antonio Tijerino, President and CEO...Read More

My fourth session of the day began with the premier of a short video from the Infosys Foundation USA’s #WhyIMake series featuring Nick Offerman of NBC’s Parks and Recreation talking about his woodworking hobby. The session was moderated by Dorothy Jones Davis, the executive director of Nation of Makers with panelists Mark Hatch, a pioneer...Read More

The last two sessions I attended featured representatives from Mississippi’s CS4MS initiative. Mike Mulvihill, the Career and Technical Education Director for the Mississippi Department of Education, was joined by Holly Lavender, STEM Education Lead in the Office of Innovation at the Ohio Department of Education, and Laura Hummel, Technology and Engineering Education Advisor for Curriculum, Instruction...Read More

During the final session of the day, Julie Jordan, director of the Research and Curriculum Unit (RCU) for Workforce Development, Vocational and Technical Education at Mississippi State University was joined by Devin Holmes of Big Sky Code Academy, a non-profit that is working to increase the tech talent pipeline in Montana. As Devin described the...Read More