Base Camp Class Reaches Halfway Mark

By David Howell

Editor

WATER VALLEY – Eleven students enrolled in Base Camp Coding Academy in Water Valley reached the halfway mark in their journey to become software programmers this month. The close-knit group has spent over six intense months of fast-paced, focused and intense training that are the proving grounds, both for the students and the new program.

Base Camp is geared for under-advantaged youth in Mississippi, providing a job-ready skill in software programming to support the technological needs of local and regional employers. The selling point is that Base Camp is designed to put high school graduates directly into the work force with a high-paying programming job after completing the 12-month program.

“I think everybody is on pace to getting those job offers at the end of the school year in May,” Base Camp’s director, Sean Anthony, reported earlier in the week.  “The one thing the first six months has proven, if you want it and are willing to put in the time, it is possible.”

Anthony explained that a lot of people think that in order to learn programming, the students need to have a strong interest in computers.

“Of the students that are in here, only three had any interest in something computer-related. For the other eight, they have learned to like it. They have learned to become passionate about it. They have put the time in and they get better and better,” Anthony explained.

“We assumed that, but to see the proof… If somebody doubts it, we have a large wealth of proof to demonstrate it,” the educator added.

That is exactly what co-founders Kagan Coughlin and Glen Evans envisioned back in the summer of 2015 when the pair started on what they described as a passion project.

“We met with so many business leaders across the state who are lacking in software programming, they had job positions that had been open for months,” Coughlin explained.

“This is going to be a fast-track tool for Mississippi as a state and all of our employers, to take our bright young students who don’t have alternate career path and accelerate their education, and put them in the work force in 12 months,” Coughlin explained about Base Camp. “The goal is to keep this as one option for our youth, to enter parts of the workforce that haven’t been accessible to them. These young folks are proving that it is not unattainable.”

The inaugural class got underway in June following a year-long launch time that hinged on raising funds, assembling a board of directors, building a curriculum, hiring teachers and recruiting students.

“Part of the reason we can make it work in Water Valley is the best resources in the world are online, so all we need is an internet connection and some people who know enough about it to decipher the content to help reach the students,” Anthony added.

While plenty of classroom instruction lies ahead for the Class of 2017, Anthony described one challenge is preparing the students to enter the workplace where they will be younger than their peers.

“That involves some maturity, it involves some personal growth,” Anthony explained. “We want to make sure they are confident, that they are going in the work force on the merits of a computer programmer, they are not going in there seen as an 18 year-old computer programmer.

 Looking Ahead

Base Camp is already accepting nominations for prospective students for their second class that gets underway this summer. Typically the nominations come from teachers and students are selected after a lengthy interview process. Last year Coughlin and other members of the Board of Directors visited schools across north Mississippi to recruit students before the field was narrowed to 14 students when classes started.

“This year, instead of us going back out … the students are also helping recruit,” Coughlin said. Each student has composed their own presentation about Base Camp to share at area schools.

“If possible we take them back to the school they just graduated from. Their audience is teachers and administrators that knew them for up to four years,” Coughlin explained. Interestingly the visits have actually become a measuring stick for the students when they return to their alma mater and other schools.

“The impact of the way these young adults carry themselves, the way they give their presentations, their physical stature… everything in their body language says they are proud of what they are doing. They know what they are talking about. That aspect, more than the technical capability, has impressed the people we have gone to speak with so far,” Coughlin added.

Funding

Students selected for the program receive a 100 percent scholarship, funded in part by generous donors across the state including founding sponsors and partners Diane and Dickie Scruggs, Paige and Glen Evans, C-Spire, FNC/Core-Logic, Renasant Bank, Northwest Mississippi Community College and The John N. Palmer Foundation.

Coughlin said the first Water Valley sponsor has been added to the list, an unnamed philanthropist interested in supporting the area’s youth.

“We are hoping to accept 25 students next year, which has put us back in the fundraising mode,” Coughlin explained.  The cost per student is about $15,000, an amount that is expected to be slightly lower next year with the larger class.

“That is very low input, super high output,” Anthony added, comparing the cost to attend a traditional four-year school and subsequent earning potential to the cost to attend Base Camp and potential earnings after completing the 12-month course.

“It’s an opportunity to move people directly into the work force, that is why I am invested. If we can put people into the well-paying, secure jobs it is going to benefit the area,” Anthony added.