Citi Collaborates with Flatiron School to Connect Women with up to $1 Million in Total Scholarships
We're excited to announce that we're joining forces with Flatiron School to connect women with up to $1 million in total scholarship dollars to attend one of Flatiron School's industry-leading software engineering or data science courses. Offered through Flatiron School's Women Take Tech initiative to remove barriers to tech education, women applying to any of the school's career change programs between Aug. 7 and Nov. 7, 2018 may be eligible to receive a $2,000 scholarship from Flatiron School.
Flatiron School students receive best-in-class tech education, job placement support, and intensive teaching and coaching for long-term success in tech. In 2017, Flatiron School started the Women Take Tech initiative to empower women and promote gender diversity in tech through scholarship offerings, custom programming, and community-building events. Since the initiative was launched, Flatiron School has awarded over $3 million in scholarships to over 500 women to learn to code.
Citi's commitment to foster diversity in the workforce makes us a natural partner to raise awareness for Women Take Tech. Our firm believes that having a diverse workforce can powerfully strengthen thinking, problem-solving and design. In 2014, Yolande Piazza, CEO of Citi FinTech, founded the "FUTURE | Women in I.T." program, which has inspired over 30,000 middle and high school girls across the U.S. to consider pursuing careers in tech.
"We're working to bridge the gender gap in technology by helping to educate, excite and empower our younger generation of girls to learn about careers in technology through our FUTURE | Women in I.T. program," says Piazza. "I'm excited about Citi's collaboration with Flatiron School, because it's one more step Citi is taking to ensure that women are driving progress in the digital age."
Citi's support of Women Take Tech represents one of many ways we're thinking about developing our talent pipeline. Earlier this year, Citi Ventures announced the launch of Citi University Partnerships in Innovation and Discovery (CUPID), a new program that engages and embeds students from leading universities in innovation efforts across Citi. Currently, 350 students -- more than 50 percent women -- from 16 universities are receiving course credit for co-creating strategic products and services for Citi and its clients. CUPID leverages talent from beyond business graduate programs to include individuals studying design, engineering, and public policy.
"I believe that investment in women with a desire to pursue careers in tech is critical for our communities across the globe. Whether they're younger women, who may choose not to pursue traditional four year degrees, or those looking to switch careers and re-define their paths in a later stage of life, investment in each of them is equally important," said Yasaman Hadjibashi, Citi's Global Consumer Technology Head of Data and Analytics. "With the current debate on what our future work skillsets should ideally be composed of, I care deeply about helping to remove as many barriers as possible for women looking to build their hard technical skills and grow successful long-term careers in this space. It doesn't matter if they sit on my team at Citi or across the globe at another company."
Scholarships and collaborations with groups like Citi are helping Flatiron School make progress toward getting more women to pursue tech careers. In fact, Flatiron School classes often achieve gender parity: student bodies range from 35-60% women. And, as of 2017, the majority of students in Flatiron School's online program are women.
Prospective students can apply to any of the below Flatiron School career change courses between Aug. 7 and Nov. 7, 2018 to be eligible for these scholarships:
● In-person Software Engineering and Data Science Courses
● Online Software Engineering and Data Science Courses
Learn more about Flatiron School's in-person and online courses, and the Women Take Tech initiative.