Hack Club
The Hack Foundation | |
 | |
| Founder | Zach Latta |
|---|---|
| Type | 501(c)(3) organization |
| 81-2908499 | |
| Purpose | STEM Education |
| Headquarters | Shelburne, Vermont |
COO | Christina Asquith |
Tech & Creative Lead | Max Wofford |
Staff | 36[1] |
Students | 23,000[2] |
| Website | https://hackclub.com, https://the.hackfoundation.org |
Hack Club is a global nonprofit network of high school computer hackers, makers and coders[3] founded in 2014 by Zach Latta.[4] It now includes more than 400 high school clubs and 23,000 students.[5] It has been featured on the TODAY Show, and profiled in the Wall Street Journal[6] and many other publications.
Programs[edit]
Hack Club's primary focus is its clubs program, in which it supports high school coding clubs through learning resources and mentorship. It also runs a series of other programs and events, both former and current.
A few notable programs and events are:
- HCB - a fiscal sponsorship program originally targeted at high school hacker events
- AMAs - video calls with industry experts such as Elon Musk[7] and Vitalik Buterin[8]
- Summer of Making - a collaboration with GitHub, Adafruit & Arduino to create an online summer program for teenagers during the COVID-19 pandemic that included $50k in hardware donations to teen hackers around the world[9]
- The Hacker Zephyr - a cross-country hackathon on a train across America[10]
- Assemble - the first high school hackathon in San Francisco since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the stated goal of "kick[ing] off a hackathon renaissance"[11]
- Epoch - A global high schooler-led hackathon in Delhi NCR organised in public to inspire the community of student hackers and bring hundreds of teenagers together[3]
- Winter Hardware Wonderland - An online winter program where teenagers submit ideas for hardware projects and, if accepted, get grants of up to $250[4]
- Outernet - An experimental four-day hackathon and camping trip in the Northeast Kingdom
- Haunted House - A 24-hour hackathon in Chicago where teenagers collaboratively built a Halloween themed webring
- Wonderland - A 48-hour hackathon in Boston where teenagers built projects using random items found in their "chest."
- Apocalypse - A 42 hour high school hackathon in Toronto with a unique theme: zombie apocalypse
Funding[edit]
Hack Club is funded by grants from philanthropic organizations and donations from individual supporters. In 2019, GitHub Education provided cash grants of up to $500 to every Hack Club "hackathon" event.[12] In May 2020, GitHub committed to a $50K hardware fund, globally alongside Arduino and Adafruit, to deliver hardware tools directly to students’ homes with a program named Hack Club Summer of Making.[13] In 2020, Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation donated $500,000 to help expand Hack Club,[14] and donated another $1,000,000 in 2021.[15] In 2022, Tom and Theresa Preston-Werner donated $500,000 to Hack Club.[16]
Criticism[edit]
Hack Club has been criticized for being an organization that is increasingly disconnected from its community through an inner circle, undemocratic and secretive practices that separate members from the decision making processes. This includes the final authority on all issues resting with Zach Latta and the Board of Directors rather than membership, and members are not granted voting rights in any way. Additionally, they have been alleged to be violating federal and state labor law. [17]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Team - Hack Club". Hack Club. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
- ^ "A Home for High School Hackers – Hack Club". Hack Club. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
- ^ a b "Hack Club: Empowering Students to Tap Into Their Coding Super Power". Fast Forward. 2016-08-02. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
- ^ a b Jackson, Abby. "Meet the 18-year-old who's skipping college to start a club for 'hackers'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
- ^ "Hack Club". Retrieved 2024-03-28.
- ^ Jargon, Julie (2019-10-01). "Teen Hackers Try to Convince Parents They Are Up to Good". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
- ^ "Watch Elon Musk's AMA with Hack Club Students". 17 May 2020.
- ^ Hack Club AMA w/ Vitalik Buterin, retrieved 2022-06-07
- ^ "Introducing Hack Club's Summer of Making". 28 May 2020.
- ^ "🚂 the Hacker Zephyr". GitHub. 10 December 2021.
- ^ "🌁 Assemble". GitHub. 10 December 2021.
- ^ "GitHub and Hack Club team up to bring more computer science resources to high schools". The GitHub Blog. 2019-09-04. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
- ^ "Introducing Hack Club's Summer of Making". The GitHub Blog. 2020-05-28. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
- ^ "ElonMusk and The Musk Foundation donated $500,000 to Hack Club". Tech News | Startups News. 2020-05-21. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
- ^ "Elon Musk's $1M Donation". Hack Club. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
- ^ "Tom and Theresa Preston-Werner are Giving $500K". Hack Club. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
- ^ "On Hack Club". Reese's Place. 2024-05-05. Retrieved 2024-05-10.