Oakland-Based Nonprofit Teams Up with Evergreen Valley High School Students to Close the Digital Divide

Evergreen High School Students (RIGHT TO LEFT):  Ayush Agarwal, Nitin Jaladanki,
and Anish Thalamati deliver devices to Tech Exchange to refurbish.

San José Teens Offering Free Python Coding Classes in the Community

San José, CA — High school students Anish Thalamati and Ankit Kapoor, co-founders of the nonprofit Closing the Divide, have teamed up with Oakland-based nonprofit Tech Exchange to narrow the digital divide for students across the San José Bay Area. 

What started as an Evergreen Valley High School class assignment completed by two eleventh-grade STEM students has grown into a nonprofit, Closing the Divide (CTD). “After learning about the issue of the digital divide in my computer science principles class, I began to realize the inequity in terms of access to technology--even in high tech areas, such as Silicon Valley,'' says Anish Thalamati. The two students “set up initiatives for low-income households in an attempt to decrease the digital divide.”

The young men also took coding classes through Evergreen Valley College in San José. “Our passion for coding was fostered by our surrounding environment's reliance on technology; specifically, software development,” says the CTD team. Closing the Divide is offering free coding classes to the community this summer, June 19 - July 17, 2021. Classes are offered as a 4-week long Python Bootcamp with 2-hour classes every Saturday for anyone regardless of area of residence. In addition, CTD has donated 30 decommissioned computers to Tech Exchange to be refurbished for others.

“Both my friend Ankit and I share this passion. By founding this organization, we hope to help others gain access to the technology and skills to pursue the same passion we have for computer science,” says Thalamati. Tech Exchange is supporting CTD by donating 10 refurbished laptops to the organization to distribute to their students in need. The high-end devices are suitable for coding, and were initially donated to Tech Exchange by Intuitive Surgical. 

Tech Exchange’s activities in San José and South Bay are supported in part by generous funding by the San José Digital Inclusion Project and the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund.

To learn more about Tech Exchange and Closing the Divide, visit www.techexhange.org and https://closingthedivide.foundation/ 

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