About 5C Academy
Our Mission
5C Academy’s primary mission is to provide free training to the under-served students who are often overlooked because of lack of proper resources in the less fortunate community. Our business model is designed to leverage the fortunate population with students who are willing to pay for quality computer training classes, and the profit will be used to hire instructors and to acquire equipment to teach the under-served population for free.
History and Goals
5C Academy was founded in 2016 by Danny Chu who retired from the computer and information technology industry. 5C Academy is an IRS registered 501c3 nonprofit organization. The mission of 5C Academy is to teach as many children to learn problem-solving skills, computational, critical, and logical thinking at an early age. The goal is to develop a computer learning pathway all the way to 12th grade, as children continue to progress to the next level of computer knowledge and skills. The final goal is to develop a computer fluent generation that will meet the workforce challenges of today and tomorrow.
The Four Components Detail
01
Early Learner-Focused
Today, there is a fundamental issue facing the computer science and engineering industries – the number of job openings are well outpacing the number of people to fill them. We believe the gap in computer science starts early – even more so for children in economically disadvantage communities.
And this gap, if never addressed, becomes larger over time leading to gap in job opportunities. By being early-learner focused (K-5) we look to stop that ‘opportunity gap’ before it starts – through engaging and exciting as many young children as possible in the field of computer science. By starting early and bringing together the power of communities, we want to shrink the ‘opportunity inequity gap’ before it starts.
We believe this early exposure will have a direct impact on the number of students who choose computer science as their career path. And for some, this choice could be pivotal – not just in job opportunities, but life opportunities.
02
Instructor-guided
In Florida, as in most states, the education community and government are grappling with how best to implement the discipline of computer science, but to date there are few fully developed elementary and high school computer science programs. Online courses have sought to plug some of these gaps.
However, without the assistance from an adult, online courses can preclude participation from the youngest of learners. And for the older young learners? A critical gap in purely online courses is the fact that they have little in the way of a comprehensive pathway towards total computer science fluency. They are better than nothing, but they are, as of yet, incomplete.
Key to the program at 5C Academy is the instruction. Our curriculum for these early learners is designed to be instructor-guided. For the young learner, a person to guide them through the process and provide immediate feedback is essential. With an instructor, we are able to monitor and manage understanding of and engagement in the material. It also allows us to enable much younger learners to be exposed to the basics of computational thinking and computer programming concepts.
03
Pathway-Centric
Leverage available teaching materials and technologies to curate curriculum that continuously builds on itself towards specific skills and knowledge sets critical to full computer science fluency.
- Provide a single source for age/competency level appropriate computer science curriculum.
- Ensures seamless matching of and transition from material to ability.
- Enables consistency of learning outcomes regardless across instruction and physical location.
04
Community-Driven
Community-level focus delivers immediate and foundational impact at the main street level, rather than relying on a trickle-down from federal, to state, to local to community.
- Greater availability of a skilled workforce within a community.
- Increases employment stability and prosperity for the community at large.
- Attracts new opportunities and companies while also opening up a path towards entrepreneurship.
- Regenerates areas organically and through relocation of others as companies grow and flourish.