Dive Brief:

• Intel plans to spend $5 million over the course of the next five years on a high school computer science pilot program in the Oakland Unified School District.
• The program's goal is to send 600 students to college to study computer science so that they can then get a job at Intel or a similar company.
• The program is specifically interested in getting more women and minorities into the computer science field.

Dive Insight:

In Oakland Unified School District, 71% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch and 65% identify as either African-American or Hispanic. Intel purposely chose a high-poverty district where minorities are the majority because the company wants to increase access for a community that is currently underrepresented in the tech world — a world that is geographically so close to these students' homes, yet seemingly eons away. 

So how exactly does the program work? Intel will create curriculum, train teachers, and provide the Internet and devices for the program. It will also provide tutoring for students at Oakland Technical School and McClymonds High School. Students who go to college to study computer science will be "Intel Scholars," receiving scholarships and the promise of a job at Intel waiting for them upon graduation. 

If successful, the pilot could become a national model for how tech companies can get more minority and low-income students to join their organizations.