[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 55 (Tuesday, April 12, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E416]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING CULTIVATING CODERS

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 12, 2016

  Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, I rise today 
to honor Cultivating Coders, a technology startup from Albuquerque 
which, on March 13, 2016, won ``Startup of Year'' at Tech.Col's South 
by Southwest interactive festival in Austin, Texas.
  This past November, Charles Ashley III and Charles Sandidge founded 
Cultivating Coders which takes an eight-week coding boot camp on the 
road to tribal, rural, inner-city, and otherwise underserved 
communities. The program provides graduates with knowledge of full 
stack web development theories and practical experience including web 
languages PHP, JavaScript, and HTML. Additionally, the company pairs 
students with small businesses and nonprofits in our community that 
need assistance with large web application development. This offers 
local companies access to technology services and creates job 
opportunities for the students.
  Only 5 months old, Cultivating Coders beat out 18 other startups to 
share the top prize with another startup called MentorMint. But Ashley 
and Sandidge are just getting started. Sandidge explained their 
enthusiasm behind attending the competition, ``If [Cultivating Coders] 
can find large scale partners--IBM, Microsoft, those places that see 
the benefit of what we're doing and where we're doing it, and helping 
with diversity in tech--that's a win for us at South by Southwest.''
  Cultivating Coders is increasing the number of minorities in the 
technology industry and creating new jobs in the process. Mr. Speaker, 
we need more forward thinking companies like this which serve our 
communities, promote local businesses, train future leaders in 
technology, increase diversity, and drive innovation. I look forward to 
watching Cultivating Coders continue to grow and achieve success. 
Congratulations Cultivating Coders, keep up the great work.

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