Hack Club

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hack Club
The Hack Foundation
FounderZach Latta
Type501(c)(3) organization
81-2908499
PurposeSTEM Education
HeadquartersShelburne, Vermont
Members
23,000[1]
COO
Christina Asquith
Tech & Creative Lead
Max Wofford
Staff
36[2]
Websitehttps://hackclub.com, https://the.hackfoundation.org

Hack Club is a global nonprofit network of high school computer hackers, makers and coders[3] founded in 2014 by Zach Latta.[4] It now includes more than 400 high school clubs and 23,000 students.[5] It has been featured on the TODAY Show, and profiled in the Wall Street Journal[6] and many other publications.

Programs[edit]

Hack Club's primary focus is its clubs program, in which it supports high school coding clubs through learning resources and mentorship. It also runs a series of other programs and events, both former and current.

A few notable programs and events are:

  • HCB - a fiscal sponsorship program originally targeted at high school hacker events
  • AMAs - video calls with industry experts such as Elon Musk[7] and Vitalik Buterin[8]
  • Summer of Making - a collaboration with GitHub, Adafruit & Arduino to create an online summer program for teenagers during the COVID-19 pandemic that included $50k in hardware donations to teen hackers around the world[9]
  • The Hacker Zephyr - a cross-country hackathon on a train across America[10]
  • Assemble - the first high school hackathon in San Francisco since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the stated goal of "kick[ing] off a hackathon renaissance"[11]
  • Epoch - A global high schooler-led hackathon in Delhi NCR organised in public to inspire the community of student hackers and bring hundreds of teenagers together[3]
  • Winter Hardware Wonderland - An online winter program where teenagers submit ideas for hardware projects and, if accepted, get grants of up to $250[4]
  • Outernet - An experimental four-day hackathon and camping trip in the Northeast Kingdom
  • Haunted House - A 24-hour hackathon in Chicago where teenagers collaboratively built a Halloween themed webring
  • Wonderland - A 48-hour hackathon in Boston where teenagers built projects using random items found in their "chest."
  • Apocalypse - A 42 hour high school hackathon in Toronto with a unique theme: zombie apocalypse

Funding[edit]

Hack Club is funded by grants from philanthropic organizations and donations from individual supporters. In 2019, GitHub Education provided cash grants of up to $500 to every Hack Club "hackathon" event.[12] In May 2020, GitHub committed to a $50K hardware fund, globally alongside Arduino and Adafruit, to deliver hardware tools directly to students’ homes with a program named Hack Club Summer of Making.[13] In 2020, Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation donated $500,000 to help expand Hack Club,[14] and donated another $1,000,000 in 2021.[15] In 2022, Tom and Theresa Preston-Werner donated $500,000 to Hack Club.[16]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "A Home for High School Hackers – Hack Club". Hack Club. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  2. ^ "Team - Hack Club". Hack Club. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  3. ^ a b "Hack Club: Empowering Students to Tap Into Their Coding Super Power". Fast Forward. 2016-08-02. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  4. ^ a b Jackson, Abby. "Meet the 18-year-old who's skipping college to start a club for 'hackers'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  5. ^ "Hack Club". Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  6. ^ Jargon, Julie (2019-10-01). "Teen Hackers Try to Convince Parents They Are Up to Good". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  7. ^ "Watch Elon Musk's AMA with Hack Club Students". 17 May 2020.
  8. ^ Hack Club AMA w/ Vitalik Buterin, retrieved 2022-06-07
  9. ^ "Introducing Hack Club's Summer of Making". 28 May 2020.
  10. ^ "🚂 the Hacker Zephyr". GitHub. 10 December 2021.
  11. ^ "🌁 Assemble". GitHub. 10 December 2021.
  12. ^ "GitHub and Hack Club team up to bring more computer science resources to high schools". The GitHub Blog. 2019-09-04. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  13. ^ "Introducing Hack Club's Summer of Making". The GitHub Blog. 2020-05-28. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  14. ^ "ElonMusk and The Musk Foundation donated $500,000 to Hack Club". Tech News | Startups News. 2020-05-21. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  15. ^ "Elon Musk's $1M Donation". Hack Club. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  16. ^ "Tom and Theresa Preston-Werner are Giving $500K". Hack Club. Retrieved 2022-06-07.