CS Kickstart

We are currently conducting a survey to gather valuable insights from our alumni. Your participation is crucial in helping us improve and shape the future of our program! As a token of our appreciation, all participants will receive a voucher for a free Strada coffee, redeemable at our upcoming fall meetup event. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey! (estimate <5 minutes): https://lnkd.in/gTaGxd_R

Running our week-long Computer Science program for incoming UC Berkeley freshmen, completely free of cost, takes strong leadership, time, and funding. During CS KickStart (CSK) week, we organize company field trips, guest speaker events, and student-led tech workshops, all while covering costs for food, housing, and other program necessities. To keep this program running, we rely on community support. Big Give, the annual day to support UC Berkeley organizations, is here! Every donation—big or small—makes a huge difference and is deeply appreciated by the CSK leadership team. :) ?? Donate here: https://lnkd.in/guUxQ7uF ?Donations close tonight, March 13, at 9:00pm PST, so please donate and help spread the word if you can. Your support helps us inspire, educate, and empower future tech leaders. Thank you!!

Yesterday, at the SIGCSE 2025 Conference, some of our student leaders (Stella Kaval, Abby O'Neill, Mallika Reddy, and Oindree Chatterjee) had the opportunity to facilitate a Birds of a Feather alongside a group of awesome faculty (Colleen Lewis, Narges Norouzi, and Alvaro Monge). Their session, “Launching and Enhancing Summer Bridge Programs,” brought together researchers with an interest in launching/improving summer bridge programs such as CS Kickstart. Recent expansions of CS Kickstart specifically include pilot programs at the University of Florida (CS Kickstart at UF) and Northeastern University - Oakland, adapting CS Kickstart’s model to new campuses while maintaining its core mission of increasing accessibility in tech. For institutions or students (at any time in their academic journey) interested in launching similar initiatives, the team offers a free step-by-step guide covering program design and implementation. We also have a specific outreach team that would love to meet you! (https://lnkd.in/gF75AK3e) Additional resources, success stories, and contact information for collaboration opportunities can be found on the official CS Kickstart website (cskickstart.com) or by emailing [email protected].