Last spring, Howard University, the historically Black educational institution in Washington, D.C., teamed up with Google in an effort to train African American students in computer science. Under the agreement, Google operated a satellite campus for Howard University students in Silicon Valley. Last summer, a group of 26 rising junior and seniors at Howard University spent the summer months in California participating in a computer science residency program. Students received a stipend to cover housing and living expenses for the three-month period. The students earned college credits for the time they spent at Google.
Writing in a blog post, Howard Sueing, a Google engineer, said that “the pilot exceeded our expectations in many ways. Students and faculty noted both the rigor and immersion in life at Google as the program’s most compelling aspects.”
Google was so pleased with the effort that it is now expanding the program from three months in the summer to a full academic year. And students from other historically Black colleges and universities will be able to participate. This fall, Google plans to host 100 students from HBCUs for a nine-month immersive computer science program at company headquarters.
Currently, about 2 percent of the professional workforce at Google is Black.
