Five Questions With: Arnell Milhouse

"I assumed for a long time that at some point, someone from the high-tech sector would roll up their sleeves and work directly with the under-served students in our public school system. That day never came, and it became more and more obvious that if I didn't create an organization like IntraCity Geeks, it probably never would happen."

Arnell Milhouse, founder and executive director of IntraCity Geeks in Providence, talked about how the organization formed as a nonprofit last fall, and some of its latest projects, including ClassFWD coding classes, currently under way at Nathan Bishop Middle School in Providence. Currently, there are nine team members, with more expected to join. He said they are looking to hire development directors who speak Spanish or have experience working with grade-school students in urban environments. During the day, he can be found at Butter Day Spa on the East Side, which he runs with his wife, Alicia.

PBN: How did IntraCity Geeks begin and how long has it been around?
MILHOUSE:
I created IntraCity Geeks because of three reasons:

1) I was born into poverty, but through an amazing turn of events I ended up in a great suburban school district, where, in seventh grade, I was exposed to computers and high-tech literacy for the first time. I was instantly hooked. That opportunity paid off tremendously; I ultimately majored in computer systems at Johnson & Wales University and went on to have a great career working for several high-tech startups in Massachusetts. Early access to high-tech literacy allowed me to ride the wave of technology out of the lower class right into middle class America. And that is what the American dream is all about. If my family didn’t have the opportunity to move to the suburbs, we wouldn’t be having this interview today.
2) Over the years, I have been able to help a number of under-employed or unemployed friends, who in turn have helped a number of their friends secure gainful employment within the technology sector. The net effect of this has been amazing. Every single person I was able to reach directly or indirectly is now living a comfortable middle class life.
In Providence, I noticed that our grade school students did not have any high-tech literacy programs such as computer coding. Today, the consequences are much more dire than when I was in school. Our already weakened state and municipal economy will completely bottom out if we don’t prepare our students to become 21st century workers and entrepreneurs.
3) Like many people, I assumed for a long time that at some point, someone from the high-tech sector would roll up their sleeves and work directly with the under-served students in our public school system. That day never came, and it became more and more obvious that if I didn’t create an organization like Geeks, it probably never would happen.

PBN: Tell me about the program currently underway at Nathan Bishop Middle School. When do you think you will offer it to more middle schools in the city?
MILHOUSE:
Our ClassFWD coding program is like pop warner or little league for the super geeks of tomorrow. The program is funded by PASA (the Providence After School Alliance) and myself. We have 26 students enrolled in the winter Jr. Bootcamp, our innovative coding class at Nathan Bishop, and we have one of the longest waiting lists in the history of PASA.
Twenty-five percent of our students are female and 60 percent are students of color. This is in alignment with our goals to diversify the high-tech job market and reduce income and wealth inequality.
We have created a fun, unique and ground-breaking curriculum as well as a teaching methodology in which the students are [engaging in] hands-on-technology throughout 90 percent of every class. Boring lectures are non-existent. The hands-on lessons are highly iterative and unlike many online computer programming websites, lessons are purposefully problematic at times (just like the real world). We’ve even created an IP Bank Account for each student and we track their intellectual deposits as well as the total number of lines of code they write throughout the course. This information is stored on their digital badges and written on their certificates.
We also teach the students to teach themselves. This is truly revolutionary and we are find that students who have never coded are completing every lesson!
Because of the fun nature of our ClassFWD curriculum, the students do more than endure the rigor, they enjoy it. We actually have to make them leave when the class ends. To see students who have no prior experience with programming actually getting it done is great. You can tell they are really proud of themselves and they deserve all of the credit.
We are expanding the ClassFWD concept to at least two more middle schools in Providence this spring, and we will begin rolling it out to high schools within the district hopefully in September. The program has received high praise from school principals, teachers, students and even parents.
Each ClassFWD junior bootcamp culminates in a junior hackathon which takes place at Brown University (and in the future will involve other universities).

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PBN: Are you helping to fill a void in tech instruction for the city students? Why is it important that they get exposure to tech early?
MILHOUSE:
There currently isn’t any widespread high-tech instruction taking place at all. Geeks is the first organization to put boots on the ground and begin exposing students to high-tech concepts and teaching every student in our city to code. We plan on teaching tech to students from K through 12 and beyond.
This is monumentally important because the Rhode Island economy is in serious trouble, and computer industry leaders have been warning us that there are going to be over 1 million unfilled high paying STEM and STEAM jobs in the U.S. by 2020. R.I. is projected to still have one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation by that time.
At Geeks we want to revolutionize rather than reform education. I have been influenced greatly by the life and impact of Samuel Slater, who was exposed to the cutting-edge mill technology of his day between the ages of five and 10 years old. It was this early exposure that provided Slater with the necessary experience to have such a great impact on American industry and life in Rhode Island.
High-tech literacy and early exposure is going to need to play a part in any conversation that involves our state becoming an economic leader. Private/public partnerships, like the one between Geeks, PASA and our public schools, are one of the keys to turning around the Rhode Island economy. Private organizations like ours have the potential to infuse the public education system with cutting-edge technology and job skill preparation. People often say that children are the future, and in the case of Rhode Island, they are also our greatest hope.

PBN: What do you think are the most important things that students will get out of participating in ClassFWD?
MILHOUSE:
First, we teach students real-world, cutting-edge technologies and practices such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C, Swift, Python, MongoDB, Postgres, Robotics, video game, website and IOS app design. Just as important, our students are gaining confidence that they can accomplish great things. They are learning about leadership, team building, entrepreneurship, critical thinking and problem solving … We want them to dream about changing the world by using their growing confidence and abilities to make the world a better place.

PBN: Are you only focusing on Providence? Will you branch out to other areas?
MILHOUSE:
Providence is our headquarters, however, we have been in contact with organizations in Boston, New York and as far away as Silicon Valley. We are growing organically with a great team and a scalable business model. Ultimately, we want to teach coding to over 1 million young people, but we are not going to rush the process. All eyes are on Rhode Island right now.

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1 COMMENT

  1. I’ve known Arnel for years and he’s always been a dreamer but a dreamer with a plan whose willing to work harder than anyone else with a plan. He’s an innovative and strategic business man whose passionate about helping others while pursuing success. I’m not surprised that he’s giving back to the inner city like this while doing what he loves ( technology). I’m very proud of him and this initiative which I know will catch on throughout the entire New England.