A New State-Wide Native American Code Writers Collaborative Announced

At the 2025 Arizona Office of Indian Education Annual Summit which took place in Phoenix this week, a new state-wide Native American Code Writers Collaborative was formed to support High School computer science teachers and Native American students in the fields of coding and computer sciences. Making the announcement and on stage was Michelle Higgins, Sharon Ramon (both from the University of Arizona), Beth Nickel (Arizona Science Center)  and Priyanka Parekh (Northern Arizona University). 

This collaborative is the next step in the state-wide multi-year initiative Native American Code Writers Program (NACWP) which was first funded in 2016 by the Arizona legislature. The program is administered by the Arizona Department of Education's Office of Indian Education, and up to now included two main partners,  University of Arizona ORP Societal Impact’ Natives Who Code program, and Science Foundation Arizona. The program supports teacher cohorts across the State in high schools serving Native American students in computer science (CS) teaching for new or novice teachers so that they can confidently teach CS. Each teacher is given the tools to tailor the CS curriculum according to their students’ lived experiences and values resulting in greater student success. High school CS education opens multiple opportunities for well-paying careers and admittance into higher education. 

For full article, please visit Agnese Nelms Haury Program website.