Ciara is looking to help increase the number of Black girls who take up coding.
On Tuesday, the R&B songstress announced the Build a Beat Challenge in partnership with Black Girls Code, a nonprofit providing Black girls and gender nonconforming youth with code and computer programming education.
The nationwide contest and its mission to “spark a musical coding revolution” empowers students age 13 to 18 to code their own song. Participants will have the opportunity to meet Ciara via a video call and win prizes aimed at furthering their tech dreams.
“I am proud to be supporting this initiative and empowering young people to take their passion for music and use it to develop technology skills that can give them a leg up in life,” Ciara said.
The Grammy-winning singer said Black Girls Code’s mission aligns perfectly with the charitable work that her Why Not You Foundation, which she founded with husband Russell Wilson in 2014, does through education: lifting students out of poverty and inspiring leadership with a Why Not You? attitude.
After signing up for the Build a Beat Challenge with Ciara, young coders will use learned and newly acquired skills to craft their own songs and remixes, blending together sounds from artists like Ciara, Alicia Keys, Common, Pharrell and more.
The contest runs from November 14 through December 31 with a total of five winners selected by a panel of celebrity judges, including MC Lyte.
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