RADNOR, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nearly fifty college and high school students from across North Carolina worked together to create applications for several nonprofit organizations in the Greensboro community at the Lincoln Financial Group (NYSE: LNC) fourth annual codeLinc hackathon-style event in Greensboro, N.C. on October 14. During the 24 hour event, students from North Carolina A&T (NCAT), Winston-Salem State, Guilford College, Appalachian State, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Greensboro, and the Early College at Guilford (ECG) worked with members of Lincoln’s Information Technology (IT) organization to help improve the charitable organizations’ operations and efficiency.
“CodeLinc is an innovative way for us to recruit young students who have an interest in Lincoln as a destination for their IT career,” said Ken Solon, executive vice president and chief information officer for Lincoln Financial Group. “We also get to make a difference in the community, and that is an important part of Lincoln’s culture.”
Nonprofit groups Out of the Garden Project, A Simple Gesture, and Rock and Wrap It Up! Inc. participated in the event. Each is committed to ending hunger in Guilford County, where 67% of public school children qualify to receive free or reduced lunches. The event focused on helping these organizations overcome a variety of technology issues by forming 11 student teams that worked with volunteer coaches from Lincoln’s IT organization.
“So many families go hungry,” said Don Milholin, executive director of Out of the Garden Project. “We have organizations whose mission is to fix that, and some support on the technology side will dramatically improve our communications and information about food donors, distributors, and the families who need it.”
“The students get fantastic mentorship from our IT employees,” added Solon. “Not many events like this combine the passion, creativity and energy of young students with the experience and coaching of industry professionals. The students push themselves to deliver a working prototype in a short amount of time, and the coaching from our IT volunteers provides a great introduction to Lincoln’s technology-focused culture.”
The first place team from codeLinc was “Aggies Code” from North Carolina A&T, who focused on solving data collection and communication issues. They designed an application that allows organizations and individuals to capture critical information such as family size and if the household includes an infant. Additionally, donors can communicate with food banks to identify food needs and location in real time with integrated Google maps. Second and third place teams from ECG and NCAT also focused on communication with push notifications and innovative features like facial recognition. An innovation award was given to students from UNC Chapel Hill for creating an automated text messaging tool that allows people to quickly identify food sources that will meet their immediate need.
Each winning team was awarded a cash prize, and Lincoln’s IT organization will work on their prototypes to turn them into a fully functional application for Out of the Garden Project, A Simple Gesture, and Rock and Wrap It Up! Inc.
“Our volunteers and the students love codeLinc,” said Nancy Rogers, senior vice president for Corporate Social Responsibility for Lincoln Financial Group. “The students get to display their talent by building a solution that solves a very real problem in childhood food insecurity, and Lincoln Financial gets a chance to give back while working closely with prospective future employees.”
About Lincoln Financial Group
Lincoln Financial Group provides advice and solutions that help empower people to take charge of their financial lives with confidence and optimism. Today, more than 17 million customers trust our retirement, insurance and wealth protection expertise to help address their lifestyle, savings and income goals, as well as to guard against long-term care expenses. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) and its affiliates. The company had $246 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2017. Lincoln is a committed corporate citizen and was named one of the Forbes Best Employers for 2017, is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America, and received a perfect score of 100 percent on the 2017 Corporate Equality Index. Learn more at: www.LincolnFinancial.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Sign up for email alerts at http://newsroom.lfg.com.
