This article was written by B Capital Group Investor, Meghan Moreland.

B Capital Group is thrilled to announce our participation with 9 Dots, a nonprofit organization committed to ensuring that all K-6 students in the greater Los Angeles area have access to a transformative computer science education. 9 Dots’ Computer Science curriculum helps children develop vital critical-thinking and problem-solving skills that can set them up for long-term success in our increasingly technology-centric world.

9 Dots partners with Title-1 elementary schools in L.A. to build and deliver a comprehensive computer science program that introduces K-6 graders to coding in a fun and empowering environment. The organization began small, focusing on a few schools in Los Angeles and Compton, and have steadily grown each year. Today the program serves over 8,000 students, 290 teachers, and 20 schools throughout Los Angeles.

During the past year of the pandemic, the program was completely transformed to an online education experience to continue offering students a fun environment to learn CS and coding skills. CS and technology represent the highest paying, highest growth jobs in our economy but schools in California’s low-income communities struggle to offer quality CS classes to their students. A lack of trained teachers is the most common reason cited by Principals for why CS is not offered at their schools.

At B Capital, we believe it is important to tackle this issue head-on, today, in order to make a lasting impact down the road. “Our involvement with 9 Dots is just one of the many ways we are committed as a firm to making an impact on improving diversity in the tech ecosystem,” says Virginia Schmitt, Partner and CFO at B Capital Group. 9 Dots’ vision is to educate a diverse new generation of coders from every walk of life and set them up to successfully help the world address its most important issues. Follow the links below for more information on 9 Dots and B Capital Group.