UTAH HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF TECH EDUCATION.

• Author: Taylor, Adva
• Position: Around Utah

Salt Lake City -- The second annual SILICON SLOPES Tech Summit showcased what many of us already know: the tech Industry In Utah Is booming. And while we should, as a state, be proud of what our tech companies have accomplished, we can also look at the opportunities that are rising with the tech tide and address them--before those opportunities become insurmountable challenges.

In Utah, there are about 4,000 open tech jobs, with an average salary of $81,000, said Alice Steinglass, president of Code.org in a general session at the summit. But there are only 400 students in public Utah high schools currently that can take AP Computer Science (CS), preparing them for a career in STEM fields, or igniting their passion in CS in general.

"That's a challenge that we need to solve to give these students an opportunity for the jobs here in Utah," she said.

The lack of diversity in the tech field is well documented, said Steinglass, but having opportunities to take AP CS in high school helps invite in female or minority students that might otherwise feel alienated by the subject. It's Intimidating, to be, for instance, the only female in a 500-student classroom of introduction CS in college, she noted. Girls and minorities are much more likely to brave that If they've already taken CS in high school.

"The lack of diversity is evident everywhere you look in the software workforce. The numbers vary depending on which study, but it's roughly a quarter or less of people working in the software workforce are women," she said.

Nine of 10 parents polled have indicated they want their children to learn computer science in school. If Utah wants to be a continuing leader in the tech field, computer science must be taught more broadly in schools. "Every student in every school should have the opportunity to take a high-quality CS class," Steinglass said. "We believe that by reaching these underrepresented students, rural students, students from all over the country and all over the state here, we could change the face of computer science and give kids an opportunity that they don't have today."

How? As a first pass, Steinglass referred people to try Hour of Code, a grassroots movement fueled by 200 partners and 100,000 teachers in 196 countries. It's one hour of a computer science project designed for anyone to try, available on Code.org.

"I can tell you that computer science is fun, and I can tell you it's cool to build your own app. But it's different when...