Students at Golden Valley High School are slated to have the opportunity to participate in the Amazon Future Engineer Program in the 2019 – 2020 school year.

This marks the second year Golden Valley has been selected by the tech giant to participate in their education program, following their previous selection for the current school year.

“The students are excited to have opportunities to expand the offerings at the school and the opportunities that come with it,” said Charity Evans, a Golden Valley computer science teacher. “There are some students that aren’t aware of the program yet, but it’s our first year and we think that should change quickly.”

The Amazon Future Engineer Program seeks to inspire children and young adults from underserved and low-income communities to pursue careers in computer science.

For students at the high school level, the program seeks to accomplish these goals by increasing access to high-caliber computer science courses, including Intro to Computer Science, AP Computer Science and AP Computer Science Principles.

Students who participate in the program may also have the opportunity to apply for a four-year $10,000 scholarship award for tuition from Amazon.

Those who have completed or are currently taking an AP computer science course and have been accepted to an accredited four-year university and plan to pursue a computer science major may apply for the scholarship award.

“The students who are currently participating in the program are particularly excited to apply for those scholarships because $10,000 a year towards getting that computer science degree is a big deal,” said Evans.

Underserved students are eight to 10 times more likely to pursue degrees in computer science if they have taken AP computer science in high school, according to program officials.

Additionally, students who participate in the program and go on to study computer science at the university level are permitted to apply for a special internship program with Amazon in their freshman or sophomore years.

In addition to course offerings, the program also assists teachers by providing access to Amazon’s professional development courses to help the school’s teachers to prepare for the 2019 – 2020 school year.

Funding is also made available through the program for field trips in close proximity to Amazon distribution centers, career talks and site visits to program partners.

Golden Valley offers several computer science career pathways through their Career Tech Education program. The pathways include networking, computer science, and a gaming pathway.

For more information about the Amazon Future Engineer Program, visit their website here.

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