‘IT CHANGES LIVES’: SECOND APPLE/MSU DEVELOPER ACADEMY CLASS GRADUATES

By Alex Walters awalters@statenews.com

Detroit – The Apple Developer Academy graduated over 160 students Thursday, marking the second year of the tech giant’s partnership with Michigan State University with a nearly doubled class-size. The program – which runs ten months and is offered to anyone above 18 years old at no cost – seeks to train people of all backgrounds to work in the software industry by fusing Apple’s technology with MSU’s instructors in a modern classroom workspace funded by Detroit philanthropy group

The Gilbert Family Foundation.

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Some graduates came in with experience in coding or technology, while others, like 70-year-old graduation speaker Andre Brooks, a retired Detroit police officer, came in looking to learn about something completely new.

Throughout the program, participants worked collaboratively and found various niches in coding, design or project management.

Unlike traditional classes in computer science or software engineering with a set curriculum that students are tested on, the academy was built around “challenge-based learning,” giving participants prob-

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Detroit native Kevin Marion – who graduated in last year’s inaugural class, mentored this year’s students and will soon begin work as a coder for a large financial company –said he appreciated the non-traditional structure because “in the real world, no employer is going to tell you how, they’re going to tell you what needs to get done. You have to figure it out.”