The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce has partnered with Technology Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS), a national grassroots organization that partners schools with engineers to teach students computer science skills. The partnership has provided 80 volunteer engineers that have helped over 1,100 students in the Central Texas region.

“With the help of the Austin Chamber, TEALS has grown in Austin from 2 to 12 schools and from 14 to an expected 36 schools in the state. This is more than double last year’s numbers,” said John Jannone, Austin Sr. Regional Manager of TEALS.

The 12 Central Texas high schools that will benefit from the partnership in the 2017-2018 school year include Akins High School; Austin Achieve Public Schools; Austin High School; Elgin High School; Harmony School of Political Science and Communication; Harmony Science Academy Pflugerville; Hendrickson High School; John B Connally High School; Liberal Arts & Science Academy (LASA); NYOS Charter School; Pflugerville High School; and Weiss High School. TEALS will be accepting applications for 2018-2019 school partners early this fall.

Even though Austin is considered a global tech hub with 17 percent of open jobs in IT, less than two percent of Central Texas high school graduates have completed computer science courses. Without computer science courses in school, our students are missing out on an essential skill—problem solving. This essential skill empowers them to compete in the global economy and pursue careers across all sectors because it teaches students computational thinking skills applicable in any industry.

Make a lasting impact in the lives of Central Texas students by volunteering your computational knowledge this year. Join the Austin Chamber and TEALS by volunteering your time to teach the next generation the importance of computer science.

Click here to submit your volunteer application.