Emerging Digital Academy has opened in Downtown Fargo, with classes starting April, 2020.
North Dakota’s first (and only) immersive Full Stack Engineering Academy will address the growing need for software development talent in North Dakota and will empower workers within the region to learn industry-relevant skills. In just five months, the Academy will provide students with the Full Stack Development skills necessary to immediately succeed at new tech careers. Guided by our experienced Advisory Board, Emerging Digital Academy’s continually-updated curriculum will evolve with the changing needs of the industry.
Each class cohort will have 12-20 students, dedicated to both online learning and real-life classroom projects. No prior computer programming experience is necessary. Recent data shows North Dakota college graduates only meet 20% of the statewide need for software engineers. Emerging Digital Academy will help bridge this gap, hoping to graduate up to 60 software engineers in 2020. Emerging Digital Academy will help solve a problem for both area employers and those looking to upscale their careers. The Full Stack curriculum is based on that of Minneapolis’s Prime Academy, whose graduates average over $55,000/year starting salary.
Blaine Booher will lead Emerging Digital Academy. Booher is a computer engineer with a passion for education. While in graduate school at the University of Cincinnati, he started a consulting company focused on a variety of web-connected technology projects. Having moved to North Dakota in 2013, Booher has worked with a variety of local organizations to help build our tech community. He has taught workshops at Girl Develop It, uCodeGirl and Arise Communities. He is also the organizer of the annual Fargo Hackathon programming competition.
Emerging Digital Academy is part of Emerging Prairie’s Grand Farm Initiative. Founding sponsors include Microsoft, Scheels, AT&T and Bushel. Applications are now being accepted at EmergingAcademy.org.
More information about Emerging Digital Academy can be found at www.emergingacademy.org
