More than 700 students from over 50 high schools participated in a 24-hour hackathon held March 8-9, 2014 in San Jose, California. Another 300 high school students participated remotely. The event, named “HSHacks,” was conceived organized and funded by high school students through sponsorships and through the generosity of eBay who provided the event venue free of cost at its San Jose headquarters.

Staff from Microsoft was on hand to provide workshops for students at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels. Students self-organized into working teams to develop ideas that would bring value to technology users or solve problems. For 24 hours the teams – fueled by sodas, burgers, pizza and snack foods – worked through the night to build apps and games to win prizes provided by the many event sponsors. Top industry developers and designers mentors were on-hand to inspire, advise, and mentor students as they built their technology projects.   

The goal of the event was to help students take control of their education. A social and competitive atmosphere of events like HSHacks inspires students who have never had the power to build their ideas. According to Shrav Mehta, founder of HSHacks: ”We want to introduce as many people to computer science as possible with our hackathon to increase talent in the industry.”

California schools are falling behind other states in both its use of technology in the classroom and the courses offered.  At the same time, computing jobs are growing at 4.3 times the state average.  According to the Conference Board and the National Science Foundation, as of December 2013 there are 77,309 open computing jobs in California but only 4,324 computer science graduates.  In states where computer science counts as an academic class, 50 percent more students enroll than in states where it is treated as an elective.