Teaching Tech to Underserved Markets

Even when urban centers are economically ebullient as a whole, most still have inner city neighborhoods that struggle both socially and economically, and Arnell Milhouse's tech education talk looks at this conundrum in detail. Milhouse, the founder of two tech-centric NGOs, grew up in a tough inner city neighborhood himself. He understands the challenges that people in these neighborhoods face, and he hopes to help them improve their lives through education — specifically, tech education.

As a young child, Milhouse grew up in a tough area of Boston. His mother managed to move the family to Cape Cod as Milhouse was entering high school, and the difference for him was staggering. In Cape Cod, he learned a wealth of different subjects and eventually fell in love with coding, whereas in Boston he was lucky enough to get through a day without being mugged. Once he learned coding, he was able to get a job and improve his life, and without that opportunity in the inner city, he would have been forced into a vicious cycle of poverty.

Milhouse has thus dedicated his career to giving inner city kids the opportunity to learn code and transcend the cycle in the same way he himself did.