Horizons cofounders, Edward Lando and Abhi Ramesh (*cofounder Darwish Gani not pictured)
In March 2011, after famously introducing the second generation of the iPad, Steve Jobs praised the liberal arts, claiming that brilliant technology develops from creativity and critical thinking.
“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough,” Jobs said. “It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing.”
Over the past few years, the creative types that Jobs lauded have had no trouble earning their “impractical” degrees in english and art. However, the other part of Jobs’ magical formula for innovation— technology — is facing more challenges among academic institutions.
The technology industry is notorious for its successful college dropouts (i.e. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Jobs himself), and hopeful entrepreneurs are following suit. Learning code is the new literacy—which values the hard and fast skills taught in a highly intensive coding bootcamp over a four-year computer science degree.
In the wake of uncertain job prospects and a steep college price tag, programs such as Girls Who Code (pre-college) and General Assembly (post-college) were specifically created to teach students coding skills independent of their undergraduate degree. But a new startup sees college as the perfect time to learn how to code.
is bringing coding bootcamps to universities in order to prepare students for the “real world,” which is evolving into a place where basic coding is a necessary skill. As an alternative to popular bootcamps such as Flatiron School, General Assembly or Dev Bootcamp, Horizons’ sessions run through the summer and school semesters, as they are specifically targeted at college students.
“Horizons is solving the problem that the modern world is moving faster than universities can adapt,” said Edward Lando, co-founder at Horizons. “We are the missing piece to a complete education by teaching real world skills and connecting our students with the best tech jobs and internships.”
Lando, Abhi Ramesh and Darwish Gani cofounded Horizons in 2015 after realizing that college-level computer sciences weren’t teaching them the necessary skills to build software.
Horizons courses are taught adjacent to college campuses, with programs tailored to students' class schedules. The bootcamp teaches skills such as HTML, CSS, Ruby on Rails, front-end development and advanced JavaScript frameworks.
While other bootcamps aim to replace or append a college education, Horizons is a preparatory tool that seeks to complement the four-year experience. Horizons’ inaugural program—an intensive, three-month session—will be taught near The University of Pennsylvania this summer.
“Our goal is to open the best doors for our students, regardless of what they want to do after,” said Lando. “We see coding and connections to the tech world as essential assets to any track.”
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