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.
Michelle Higgins, Associate Director in the Office of Societal Impact, who is the PI for the University of Arizona Native's Who Code Program shared:
"Through the Collaborative, we will each bring in professional development resources from our own institutions and promote resources from other organizations (e.g., Indigitize, Office of Indian Education, Indigenous Teacher Education Program); include voices and experiences of previous teacher cohorts; expand beyond computer science to include artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual and augmented reality; provide opportunities for educators, community members, industry members, and students to share their expertise and knowledge; and with funds from the University of Arizona Agnese Nelms Haury Program, provide in-person collaboration meetings and offer mini-grants to promote collaborative and synergistic programs. We will continue to seek partnerships and funding from local and federal foundations, private donors, and government agencies, so that Native American youth are prepared to be at the forefront of a technology-based, global workforce."
The Agnese Nelms Haury Program is an embedded, trust-based philanthropic unit within the University of Arizona and Arizona Institute for Resilience, dedicated to advancing Indigenous Resilience and supporting and strengthening University of Arizona’s land-grant mission, fulfilling their obligations towards Arizona tribes. The Haury Program has worked extensively to build the communication and partnerships among the organizations and other stakeholders to ensure successful implementation of the past allocation, and to spearhead new state legislation to renew the program allocation.
The Haury Program extends special thanks to Lynnann Yazzie, Deputy Associate Superintendent, Office of Indian Education, for her leadership in promoting Native coding education and funding this work for the past 2-3 years. And warm congratulations to all the partners and stakeholders, and we are excited to watch this collaborative flourish and continue to close the gap for Native American students towards achieving rewarding careers in coding and computer sciences.
