Among the extensive network of IT for Youth Russia coding clubs, one club stands out as uniquely impactful.  The club is based at the Novokuznetsk Special Boarding School for Kids afflicted with tuberculosis who have been abandoned by their parents.

The Kirov IT for Youth Center, within the DigiGirlz campaign, hosts an IT Girls event to inspire girls to embrace technology.

Over 150 girls from schools across Kirov, Russia attended an IT Girls event to explore exciting career opportunities in technology, communicate with IT professionals about real life experiences, and participate in hands-on technology workshops.  One of the young girls in attendance, Olesya Shamova, admits she went to the event just to hang out with friends.  She had no idea she would truly find her life-calling that day!

From March 14h through April 14th, 2017, PH International successfully held the DigiGirlz campaign in Russia within Microsoft IT for Youth project. The goal of the campaign was to ignite girls’ interest in technology studies and IT careers, and give them the opportunity to discover their full potential with the help of technology and explore their possible IT-career paths.

One of the most significant recent achievements of IT4Youth has been launching the nationwide network of volunteer-led after school coding clubs to provide young people from all backgrounds with the chance to start/continue their Computer Science education and learn programming skills that are becoming a necessary requisite for many technology careers.

During the last week of April 2016, in cooperation with Microsoft, PH International with its IT for Youth project hosted the DigiGirlz events in Russia! The events were held within Microsoft global initiative #MAKEWHATSNEXT and aimed at igniting girls’ interest in technology studies and IT careers, and giving them the opportunity to discover their full potential with the help of technology and explore their possible IT-career paths.  

The 7th European Get Online Week, an annual digital empowerment campaign, started on the 14th of March. In 2016, Get Online Week will encourage people of all ages to use the Internet and technology in a safe and confident way to improve their digital skills, job opportunities, and their overall quality of life.

The educational project “Code-Class” launches February 15, 2016!  The emphasis of the project is to increase the professionalism of educators by introducing them to the basics of programming and challenging them to write their first code-games, create apps, and build their first websites.

 

Hackathons are increasingly becoming popular events all over the world, bringing with them the opportunity for thousands of students to grow their coding skills and build a community of developers at their universities.

The hackathon movement has been spreading throughout Russia, but there are still many questions about what makes for a successful hackathon.  In response, the Tvoy Kurs staff in partnership with Microsoft Russia conducted a workshop for Tvoy Kurs center coordinators on orchestrating hackathons for school and university students.

 

June 2013 saw the official wrap up of the student volunteer program in high schools, jointly organized by Project Harmony and AIESEC as part of the Tvoy Kurs initiative. During the first project year 115 Russian and 30 foreign student volunteers held 1,200 career orientation and training events for high school students from 100 schools in various regions of Russia. Aleksandr Skudarnov, a 5th year IT major from Tomsk Polytechnic University , and Aleksandr Fedosov, a 3rd year student at Omsk State Railroad Engineering University majoring in automatics and control software, were awarded the title of Best Student Volunteers for their contributions to improving training methods and course content in career orientation training, and for achieving the best results in counseling and training high school students. Both received the top prize: a travel grant and a chance to participate in Imagine Cup 2013 Worldwide Finals where they got to see many innovative software projects developed by students from around the world.

IT-Evangelist Contest defined the best student volunteers of the project on the basis of the project year. Announcing the competition among the students, we encouraged them to share their success cases and results of their work within Your Course: IT for Youth project, as well as to evaluate the significance of their own efforts.
Many student volunteers indicated that participation in the project helped them to develop their potential and improve their skills.
Ten of the most active volunteers were awarded with letters of appreciation signed by the heads of Microsoft, PH, AIESEC, and got some discounts on international internships organized by AIESEC.
The grand prize, a trip to St. Petersburg for international Imagine Cup finals in 2013 has been shared by two of the best volunteers - Skudarnovu Alexander and Alexander Fedosov.