Mississippi’s Base Camp Coding Academy Hosts C Spire at new Everest Facility

C Spire Visits Base Camp

On Friday October 9^th, Base Camp Coding Academy (BCCA) hosted a small group of executives and BCCA alumni from C Spire.  This visit allowed current Base Camp students to build relationships with current C Spire employees and executives. This was also the first opportunity for the C Spire team to visit Everest, Mississippi’s First Rural Education and Innovation Hub, and the new home of Base Camp.  This new facility, a former garment factory, has undergone a complete renovation during 2020, and thanks to C Spire’s amazing support, boasts some of the fastest fiber internet service in the state.

During the visit, C Spire Chief Executive Officer, Hu Meena, spoke about the ongoing positive relationship between C Spire and BCCA.  “The engine of our state’s economy, our nation and the world are being driven by the internet, digital commerce and technology innovation,” said C Spire CEO Hu Meena.  “At C Spire, we are committed to ensuring that Mississippi will be at the head of the line in this rapid transformation to a knowledge and technology-based economy and programs like the Base Camp Coding Academy are going to help us get there sooner.” He also recognized Carla Lewis, C Spire Chief Technology Officer and BCCA Board Member, for her incredible contributions to this collaboration.  “Computer science education and skills are a critical component to a successful and productive career in information technology,” said C Spire CTO Carla Lewis.  “C Spire is investing our time and resources to ensure that Mississippi is a leader in the rapid transition to a 21st century digital economy.” Finally, Mr. Meena and Beth Pickering, C Spire Foundation Executive Director, presented BCCA co-founders, Kagan Coughlin and Glen Evans, with C Spire’s yearly contribution which covers 20% of BCCA’s yearly operating budget.

To end the day, C Spire visitors were invited to visit with the current BCCA students as they showed off their first Unit Projects.  When asked about the visit, BCCA Executive Director, Corey Mize, said: “It’s so incredible that these C Spire executives, the Creekmore family, and the C Spire Base Camp alumni are willing to travel up to Everest just to meet with our students.  The relationships that were formed here today will be invaluable to these students as they move forward with their educations and start their careers in tech.  We are so grateful for C Spire’s support of Base Camp, not only financially, but also with their time and their people.”

About C Spire

C Spire is a privately-held telecommunications and technology company driven to deliver the best experiences in wireless, fiber internet, and business IT solutions such as internet, VoIP, cloud and managed services.  Read more news releases and announcements at cspire.com/news.  For more information, visit cspire.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

About Base Camp Coding Academy

Located in Water Valley, MS, the non-profit Base Camp Coding Academy (BCCA) is a hands-on, challenging and fun program, designed to train recent high school graduates to be software engineers. In a small classroom setting, students work with real world technologies to learn the fundamentals of coding, app development and the life leadership skills they will need to be successful in their career and competitive in the job market. The year-long program is free to students thanks to the support of Sustaining Sponsors including the MorganWhite Group, CoreLogic, Renasant Bank, CSpire, and FedEx and aims to help address the private sector’s historical shortage of high-tech skilled labor by training local youth to fill the positions. Every year, Mississippi has 1,200 unfilled computing jobs and less than 200 computer science graduates.

Everest, also located in Water Valley, Miss., is a partnership with Northwest Mississippi Community College, The City of Water Valley, Delta Regional Authority, and corporate and philanthropic sponsors to develop Mississippi’s first Rural Education and Innovation Hub providing tech and tech adjacent workforce training in this previously underserved region of Mississippi.