On March 25, 2023, Code Nation New York hosted its 4th annual Hackathon at Google’s headquarters in New York City. The event was a huge success, with over 70 students from across the city coming together to learn new skills, build projects, and network with professionals in the tech industry!

Thank you to our sponsors at Google, Bloomberg, and Wipro who made it possible to hold this event!

The day started with breakfast and a welcome address from Code Nation’s Program Manager and MC for the event, Fahim Rahman. Fahim spoke about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the tech industry, and how the theme of the event, “Code Your Passion”, relates to our mission. He elaborated on how this theme encourages students to find new and fun ways to bring our community together. He also encouraged the students to take advantage of all the resources that were available to them at the Hackathon, including volunteers and peers, and to have fun and be creative.

After the welcome address, students were divided into teams and given the opportunity to brainstorm and wireframe their projects. They had a few breaks for lunch and dinner throughout the day, but for the most part were working incredibly hard to translate their ideas from words and illustrations to functional code that could be rendered on their websites. Code Nation staff from our regional and national teams were ready to provide support and guidance, and were eager to celebrate students as they accomplished different milestones throughout the day. Our amazing volunteers were also a vital part of the day, since they provided technical assistance to student groups and helped them manifest their shared visions.

At the end of the day, students presented their projects to a panel of judges. The judges were very impressed by the creativity and innovation of the students’ projects, and awarded prizes donated by our sponsors to the top five teams – Best Overall, Best Presentation, Most Innovative, Best Interpretation of the Theme, and Best Design. Code Nation’s CEO, Ron Summers, closed out the day by congratulating all of our students for their hard work and dedication and reminding them that the Code Nation community will always have their backs.

Team Guac was awarded Best Overall after going through two rounds of judging, which focused on the technical aspects of their project and how well their project demonstrated the theme.

Overall, it was incredible to witness students from so many different programs coming together and creating new friendships, developing confidence in their unique skill sets, and being open to learning new things. Code Nation will always be committed to providing opportunities like this for students from all backgrounds, and we are excited to see what the future holds for the next generation of innovators and the tech industry.

Team Guac with the final round judges, Code Nation’s CEO and their finalist prizes!

We are extremely grateful to Google for hosting us in their offices and welcoming our community into their space and for sponsoring the event. Additionally, a huge thank you to our sponsors at Bloomberg and Wipro. Thank you for your support! We look forward to doing this again next year!