Work in Progress: Leveraging a Virtual Precollege Summer Coding Day Camp to Promote DEI in Recruiting Students to Computer Science and Information Technology

As part of an ongoing initiative to recruit students to the Computer Science and Information Technology degree programs at XXX University, a summer coding day camp was formed beginning in the summer of 2019 through a grant with XXX. The 2019 camp was a two-week on-campus experience. In the success of the first year, expansion, to include a satellite campus, was planned for year two. This was never realized due to COVID-19. The summer 2020 delivery and curriculum was redesigned two short months before delivery. The decision was made to offer a much abbreviated online version of the camp, while maintaining the maximum capacity. Through a partnership with XXX, curriculum was selected and a virtual capture-the-flag was offered. The capture-the-flag competition served to promote participation in the recruitment activities. Through the use of pre and post tests, data was collected as to familiarity with the university, the Department of Computer Science degree offerings, job opportunities in the field, and intention to attend college. Additionally, student surveys were administered to collect demographic information. This paper details the experience of offering a virtual summer coding camp and explores both the challenges and opportunities that were encountered. Details into the specifics of how the camp was administered and recruiting activities are presented as are the results of the survey and test findings. It is concluded that the experience was a success, reaching maximum enrollment within 48 hours and achieving a wait-list of over 80. Of the students enrolled in the camp, women and minorities represented a significant population and the vast majority of the students reported that their expectations were met or exceeded.