Diversity at Epicodus

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are core parts of Epicodus's mission statement to "focus on serving people who, by birth or circumstance, don't have easy access to learning the skills they need to get great jobs." 

Since we started, we've worked towards making Epicodus a welcoming space where people from all backgrounds can be successful, which means recognizing barriers people from underrepresented groups face and working to overcome them. In 2019, our staff started meeting and working regularly to discuss and implement changes to improve DEI at our school.

Here are the ways in which Epicodus has designed our program with DEI in mind, from admissions to curriculum to career services:

Admissions and Accessibility

  • In our admissions process, students are required to write an email in which they tell us how they'll help make Epicodus an environment that is inclusive and welcoming to all.

  • We have a tuition plan in which students don't pay until they get a job.

  • We offer 1-4 full scholarships each class to people from underrepresented racial groups (especially Latinx, Black, and indigenous people) as well as transgender and gender nonconforming people.

  • We proactively seek out funding opportunities to help cover tuition for students who could not otherwise afford to attend

Classroom Culture

  • We treat DEI as integral to Epicodus culture, from day one. On the first day of class our staff talks with our students about inclusivity, how majority-group students can make the classroom inclusive, and resources and support for minority-group students.

  • When giving constructive feedback to students about their code and career services assignments, staff use supportive language to minimize stereotype threat for students from underrepresented groups.

  • We've made it easy for students to request individual meetings with their teachers, since students from underrepresented groups often need additional academic and emotional support.

  • We have a mentorship program so that new students can get peer support from students who have been at Epicodus longer.

  • At the end of each day, students provide short feedback to their teacher on their experience with their pair for that day, so that teachers can identify if any students are engaging in behavior that makes others feel excluded.

  • In our weekly survey to our students, we include a question about inclusion in the classroom so that we can try to identify and fix inclusion problems in our classes. 

  • Our full-time program length is very long (27 weeks) so students without technical backgrounds have the time they need to succeed.

  • We have also launched a part-time version of the program to be more accessible to students whose schedules do not allow them to attend full-time classes.

  • We let students who need extra time retake the first ten weeks of our program at no additional cost.

  • We create our lessons with the assumption that our students don't have a technical background, including making sure we explicitly teach how to use tools that more experienced computer users would take for granted.

DEI Learning

  • We build on our first-day talk with a discussion about microaggressions, so that our students are equipped to recognize them and support their classmates, and so that they know who to reach out to for support.

  • We created a DEI curriculum that runs alongside our other learning with lessons and journaling prompts interspersed throughout the course. 

  • During the twenty weeks students spend in the classroom, we conduct four workshops to dig into topics like worldview and bias and allyship engagement. Each workshop begins with a presentation to ensure we’re all working with the same understanding of the concepts covered. Then, students break into groups to discuss topics and scenarios relating to the classroom or to the environment they’re likely to encounter in the tech industry. 

  • Our Director of Operations leads DEI engagement with students. They, along with the rest of the leadership team, facilitate DEI workshops. They also make themselves available for office hours each week. 

Networking and Career Services

  • Our career services program assumes that people haven't applied for a professional job before and provides in-class support, structure, and feedback so that people from all backgrounds can learn job application skills.

  • Each class has an advisor who works with students from enrollment all the way through their job search, allowing for support catered to the needs of individual students.

  • We offer a year of job search support after graduation to make sure students have a consistent resource as they seek out their first role in the tech industry

  • We’re putting together a set of workshops covering life skills and a simplified version of our weekend workshop to offer as a resource to schools and organizations that support low income communities and communities of color.