Who We Are
Mission Bit is a non-profit that offers free programming classes taught by experienced engineers and entrepreneurs to San Francisco public school students. We provide everything the students need, they just need to show up and be eager to learn. No prior experience required.
We give students the opportunity to learn directly from successful engineers and entrepreneurs who enjoy sharing knowledge and want to give back to the community. We're focused on project based learning and aim to teach both core computer science concepts as well as the practical skills and technologies that are required to build web sites and applications today. We partner with the public school system, Out of Site, and Jamestown Community Center to provide elective credit to students that counts towards their graduation.
Primary Goals
Mission Bit classes create opportunities for more public school students to explore computer programming as potential academic and professional pursuit.
Mission Bit classes create opportunities for public school students to begin developing computer programming skills earlier in their academic careers.
Mission Bit classes create opportunities for public school students to learn computer programming skills and technologies in parallel and complemtary with their 'in-school' classes
Mission Bit course offerings align with and complement classes being offered via SF Unified CS courses, TEALS AP classes, Code.org AP classes as well as CS programs of City and State colleges and universities
Mission Bit places an active emphasis on skill development that aligns directly with expectations of companies employing computer programming engineers.
Mission Bit is actively working with tech companies in the San Francisco to create internships and creative projects for SF public high school students.
Note from Founder
I grew up in an at-risk low income rural community in upstate New York. Entering high school, I charted a path that helped me bust through the challenges of my environment and led to new exciting opportunities and experiences. I feel really lucky and appreciate the help, direction and understanding I received along the way. All kids benefit from a bit of guidance, attention and energy. This is especially true for youth growing up in challenging situations. Mission Bit is my 'thank you'. Hopefully, it provides some support to kids in SF seeking more for themselves and helps create new opportunities if they are willing to put in the work.
Management
Tyson Daugherty Acting General Manager, Mission Bit
Parallel Entrepreneur, General Manager, Deal Guy, Strategist, Product Geek, Hacker
Someone Awesome General Manager, Mission Bit
Send an email to info@missionbit.com with "general manager" in the subject line if you are interested in learning about the position.
Board of Directors
Bob Ippolito Entrepreneur, Maker of Things
I'm co-founder and former CTO of Mochi Media. I also worked on the iOS team at Facebook for a short time after the acquisition of Pieceable in 2012. I'm working to improve the state of early programming education with Mission Bit, The College Initiative, and related open source projects.
Clive Downie COO, Zynga
Jesse Farmer Computer Programmer, Entrepreneur
After graduating with a degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago, Jesse moved to San Francisco and never looked back. In 2010 he co-founded Everlane, a venture-backed online fashion retailer. In 2012, he co-founded Dev Bootcamp, a 9-week, 700+ hour bootcamp to train software engineers. He's now dedicated to teaching you to fall in love with quality code and — if you ask nicely — how to bake an amazing cheesecake.
Tyson Daugherty Founder, Mission Bit
Parallel Entrepreneur, General Manager, Deal Guy, Strategist, Product Geek, Hacker
Lead Instructors
Brian Clark CEO, Silith.io
Bob Ippolito Entrepreneur, Maker of Things
Jesse Farmer Computer Programmer, Entrepreneur
Instructors
Matt Hill Principal at Hyperceptive
Kevin Chard Software Engineer at ArcSight
Tim Sze Server Engineer on GoBank at Green Dot
George Su Software Innovator at Originate
Alessandro Zanardi Founder and CEO at Good Karma
David Paschich Technology-focused Product Manager/Developer
Cyd La Luz Software Engineer at Schoolzilla
Advisors to the Board
Marcus Phillips Lead Instructor and Head of Curriculum & Engineering, Hack Reactor
At Twitter, Marcus led several technical training initiatives and worked on the company’s JavaScript framework internals. Marcus directs the Hack Reactor curriculum and the software that supports it. He also runs JavaScript training tracks for JSConf and HTML5 DevConf.
Anthony Phillips CEO, Hack Reactor
Tony co-founded Hack Reactor drawing from his time designing language curriculum in South Korea as a Fulbright Scholar, managing language immersion schools, a stint teaching Rails at Dev Bootcamp and his own self-guided experience learning Ruby and JavaScript.
Vanessa Slavich Square, Inc.
Vanessa Slavich builds programs at Square to inspire, educate, and empower the next generation of women in technology. Sometimes wishing she was an engineer herself, she works to change the ratio in STEM education and careers. Prior to pursuing her dreams at Square in San Francisco, she worked at Apple and lived in Copenhagen, Chile and London. A believer in the power of movement and community, Vanessa is an Ambassador to Tri-California, the SF Marathon and PacWest Athletics, leads Square’s triathlon and running teams, and is training for her first Ironman, Ironman Brazil.
Sarah Austin CPO, Stremor Corp; CEO, Pop17
I've been in the media, digital media, and product development industries for the past 13 years with a focus on mobile over the last 8 years. I made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and starred in Randi Zuckerberg's Statups Silicon Valley in 2012. Currently I'm an entrepreneur with a NLP startup and we're launching our latent search product in November, 2013. I also occasionally invest in early stage startups on the side. I launched my Foundation in 2013 to bridge access to health and education for disadvantaged low income minority students.
Chasse Carroll Board Director, Out Of Site
Chasse Carroll was a public school teacher of underserved youth in Daly City for 10 years. She spent her teaching career attempting to give students the opportunity to think, question and be creative. She has a particular interest in helping low income students cross the digital divide. She has a MA in Education from University of California, Berkeley and a BA from Beloit College.
Tony DiStefano Executive Director, Enterprise for High School Students
Tony DiStefano is the Executive Director of Enterprise for High School Students, one of San Francisco's leading youth development organizations. Enterprise works with over 500 San Francisco high school students each year. By combining skills development workshops with internships and career counseling Enterprise helps youth discover career opportunities and develop skills to successfully transition into adulthood. Prior to joining Enterprise in 2008, Tony was the CEO of Arrival Communications, a venture-backed telecommunications company; CEO of PacTel Cable and CEO of PG&E Enterprises. Tony has an MBA from Stanford and BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from RPI.
Rachel Constable Square, Inc.
Rachel builds programs focused on empowering the future generation of engineers. She managed Square's company on-boarding program for intern and new grad engineers and helped create Square's homegrown Code Camp programs for high school and college women. She partners with organizations such as Code2040, The Anita Borg Institute, and Hackbright to support women and minorities pursuing careers in technology. Before Square, Rachel worked at Facebook for four years where she focused on diversity initiatives and recruited for groups across the company.