Investing right back in our Community, Closing the Digital and STEM divide.

Pursuit of Innovation 515 (Pi515) is a nonprofit organization that teaches undeserved and refugee students computer programming, coding, and STEM skills. Students from the Des Moines Metro area are encouraged and supported as they learn about college/career opportunities, ways to serve the community, and how to achieve greater potential.

Pi515 has seen a historic year of momentum helping close the STEM gap by equipping low income students with skills to prepare them for careers in the technology industry and closing the digital divide by making sure that students have Tech equipment at home and are producing Tech.

We are excited for the second half of 2019. As the 2019/2020 school year approaches, here are a few highlights of what we have been up to this year:

• Received donations from AT&T that doubled our funding
• Through a $30,000 Coca Cola and Atlantic Bottling Dear Future community impact grant., Pi515 hired 14 high school students at $15/ hour to teach Pi515’s tech curriculum in three middle schools. The curriculum follows the school year calendar with three classes per week.
• Pi515’s high school curriculum is taught by tech professionals in two high schools where students not only learn technology skills but soft skills including resume writing and interview techniques. At the end of the curriculum, Pi515’s high school students job shadow and present what they learned to Pi515’s corporate partners.
• 50 new laptops were given to Pi515’s high school Students who completed a whole year of Web Design class. Example: Explore Des Moines Website
• 130 Advanced Placement Computer Science high school students took business tours of Hy-Vee and Dwolla
• $10,000 was raised for student scholarships through Dwolla’s annual Monetery Tech Summit
• Five of Pi515’s female students received the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) award
• We served 6000 after schools meals to kids in our county

Thank you to, Coca Cola, Atlantic Bottling, AT&T, Altoona Facebook Data Center, Dwolla, Monetery Summit, Larson Foundation, Nelson Foundation, Wells Fargo, United Way of Central Iowa, Hatchlings, John Deer ISG, American Equity, Aureon Staffing, Entrepreneurial Technologies, Rocket Referals, Central College, Next Level Ventures, Polk County, NCMIC, Greater Des Moines Partnership, Suku Radia, Tej Dhawan , Gary Scholten, The Howe family, Sheila Thurston, Sen Janet Petersen for helping us close the divide in our community.