This article is based on a GitHub blog announcement originally published in September 2019. Grant amounts and program details reflect conditions at that time and may have changed.
GitHub Partners with Hack Club to Support High School Coders
High school students are capable of shipping real code, building meaningful projects, and gaining practical engineering skills well before they enroll in college. The barrier has rarely been talent — it has been access to networks, mentorship, events, and tools that college students often take for granted. To help close that gap, GitHub announced a partnership with Hack Club to enrich and expand high school hackathon communities across the United States.
What Is Hack Club?
Hack Club is a nonprofit network of student-led coding clubs operating in high schools. Founded by Zach Latta, who began coding at age 7 and launched the organisation at 16, Hack Club gives students the structure and community to teach each other to code, organize hackathons, and connect with peers across the world — without requiring formal teachers or state-mandated curricula.
“I started to code at 7 years old, and — like so many other programmers — I’m self-taught. At 16, I launched Hack Club, an online community of high school students. And together, we build tools to teach each other to code. No teachers. No state curricula. Just student hackers in hundreds of different communities across the world talking to each other and organizing hackathons to bring us all together.”
— Zach Latta, Founder of Hack Club
What Students Gain Through the Partnership
Through the GitHub–Hack Club partnership, high school students and club leaders gain access to a range of resources designed to lower the barrier to starting and running a coding club or hackathon:
- Hack Club’s network: Access to programs and fellow student leaders across the U.S.
- GitHub Student Developer Pack: Free access to professional developer tools, cloud credits, and services normally reserved for paying users.
- Octocat swag and marketing materials: Resources to promote and run club events.
- Curriculum: Ready-made workshop and club curriculum so student leaders do not have to build everything from scratch.
- Hack Club Slack community: A channel to connect with other student hackers and organizers globally.
GitHub Grants for Clubs and Hackathons (2019/2020 School Year)
To reduce the financial friction of starting a club or running an event, GitHub committed funding directly to Hack Club chapters and hackathons for the 2019/2020 school year:
- $50 start-up grant for all new Hack Club chapters
- $50 per semester for all existing Hack Club chapters
- Up to $500 in sponsorship for high school hackathons organised through Hack Club
These grants were intended to cover practical costs like venue expenses, food, and printing — the kind of real-world logistics that student organisers often struggle to fund independently.
How Hack Club Changes Student Trajectories
Current and former Hack Club members credit the programme with shaping their careers and confidence as engineers and community builders:
“Hack Club’s curriculum and community showed me that computer science is not something exclusive, untouchable, or unwelcoming, but a field so vast and ever-changing that it has a place for anyone and everyone, regardless of background, experience, or level of commitment. Coding became synonymous with opportunity and brought with it the possibilities of crafting and creating something with the potential of making a difference. Hack Club helped open my eyes to the possibilities of what was seemingly impossible.”
— Connie Liu, co-founder of Hack the Fog
“I wouldn’t be who I am today without Hack Club. I ended up co-leading a Hack Club at my own high school and co-leading Hack Camp so that I could give back to the next generation of students and budding coders. Nothing is more inspiring than seeing students with no or beginning coding skills become students building high-impact projects and clubs of their own.”
— Selynna Sun, hackathon organiser who has run events for over 3,000 students
GitHub’s Broader Commitment to Student Developer Communities
The Hack Club partnership builds on GitHub’s existing involvement in the student developer ecosystem, including its long-running collaboration with Major League Hacking (MLH). GitHub has consistently positioned hackathons as one of the most effective environments for practical computer science learning — students build under time pressure, collaborate across disciplines, and ship something real at the end of a weekend.
By extending that model to high schools through Hack Club, the goal is to reach students earlier, before many have decided whether a career in technology is accessible or relevant to them.
Getting Involved
If you are a high school student, educator, or community organiser interested in Hack Club, here are the main entry points:
- Find a hackathon: Check the Hack Club Hackathon directory for events near you.
- Start a club: Visit hackclub.com for guides on launching a chapter at your school.
- Access curriculum: Hack Club publishes free workshop and project curriculum that clubs can use directly.
- Join the community: The Hack Club Slack is an active space for student hackers to connect, share projects, and get help.
- Claim the Student Developer Pack: Eligible high school students can apply for the GitHub Student Developer Pack for free access to professional tools.
Note: Grant amounts, programme availability, and partnership terms described here reflect the original 2019 announcement. Visit hackclub.com and education.github.com for current details.