How do you know if something is a fit if you’ve never had the chance to try it out?
That’s where we come in.
Check out our Guild Program—your low-risk, high-reward chance to explore tech.
In one week, you’ll gain hands-on experience tackling a real-life challenge tailored to your local community. With the help and support of tech professionals, you’ll have the chance to figure out if you can picture a career in tech.
If you are already pursuing tech at UMD, awesome! We can’t wait for you to join us. Please check out our additional programs like mentoring, computing courses and Sprinternship®.
COVID-19 Update
Break Through Tech is closely monitoring the development of COVID-19 in DC and surrounding areas. The health, safety, and well-being of our community are our top priority. We are working closely with UMD officials to follow official guidance from health officials. All programming is currently being conducted virtually.
How does Guild benefit you?
Participating in Guild requires five days out of your schedule. But it’s five days that could put you on course toward a rewarding career. If you discover that you like the world of technology (which many Guild participants do!) the Break Through Tech DC team can help you take the next steps toward a great tech career.
Consider this: the median base salary for a software developer in DC is $99,265, according to Glassdoor.
Every one of these developers had to start somewhere. Maybe you start in Guild.
So you’re interested?
Participate at no cost!
Guild is free of charge! In addition, we provide each participant with $150 after the conclusion of the program.
We’ll loan you equipment if you need it.
All you need to participate in Guild is a laptop and an Internet connection, both of which we can provide on loan if you need it.
Schedule and topics
Guild sessions run Monday through Friday 10am-4pm plus optional social and office-hour gatherings. During part of each day, we will spend time exploring answers to these questions:
- Community-building: With so much work and study being online, how can we make meaningful connections to others?
- Design thinking: How can we work with others to understand and work on solutions to real-world problems?
- Programming: How do I use programming tools to solve problems through reading user input, processing information, and providing meaningful output?
- Careers: What do industry professionals advise in their roles as mentors? What does it look like to have a job in tech?
- Study: What are the next steps for me to explore a career in tech at my current school? What is the pathway to graduate with a major or minor in computing at UMD?
Questions? Email breakthroughtech@umd.edu.
