The Gordon Family Giving Foundation (GF2), founded in 2018 by Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon and his family, has partnered with the University of Central Florida’s College of Community Innovation and Education to deliver the STEM-focused {CodeOrlando} program on the UCF Downtown campus each summer through 2025.
The foundation’s generous philanthropic commitment will support the development of the program, which provides high-tech educational opportunities for underserved and underrepresented Orlando high school students, and also be used to award scholarships to program mentors. The program is free to students and based on need.
“We look forward to seeing 8th-12th graders jump into STEM learning through participation in the GF2 Coding Camp, and in the important long-term follow up with mentors that it will provide. The College of Community Innovation and Education is excited and fortunate to partner with the Gordon Family Foundation to offer this opportunity,” says Pamela “Sissi” Carroll, dean of the College of Community Innovation and Education and Mildred W. Coyle Eminent Scholar and Endowed Professor of Education.
{CodeOrlando} students participate in a series of hands-on visits to Orlando based companies and organizations that design, develop and use cutting-edge technologies, especially those that help better the world.
Visits include working with specific technologies, touring engineering sites and having individual meetings with employees who share similar demographic backgrounds and circumstances. Students intern at these organizations and create projects using coding tools.
“UCF is the perfect partner to grow and deepen the program,” says Shelly Davis Gordon, CEO of GF2.
The foundation provides scholarships, ongoing support and opportunities for every {CodeOrlando} student through college to reach their educational goals. Gordon, GF2’s president who has played for the Orlando Magic since he was drafted in 2014, works alongside students and gives them instruction on mindfulness, presentation and life skills. He says the Gordon Family Giving Foundation’s goal is to ensure that students are able to not only go to college, but to graduate in a STEM-related field.
“Potential is universal, but opportunity is not,” says Gordon. “We partner with local schools, industries and technologists to provide opportunity, support and encouragement for our students, and we are proud to have UCF as a partner for this important program.”