mission

Changing Expectations provides STEM, tech, digital skills, and AI workforce development programs to prepare youth and adults to pursue digital careers and tech entrepreneurship and to support students and educators in schools and universities. Our programs are designed to close the STEM and digital skills divide by creating learning opportunities through education and workforce development.

Changing Expectations has the following inclusive artificial intelligence (AI) literacy education goals – close the AI digital divide by ensuring learners can use AI skills crucial for 21st-century education and the workforce, increase the diversity of AI users, managers, and developers, and provide AI literacy education that addresses relevant, real-world issues.

Changing Expectations' Mission is Empowering Success Through Artificial Intelligence Education and Workforce Development. We are not just teaching STEM and AI—we are reshaping the future by closing the AI divide and ensuring digital opportunity. Our work also ensures that students, educators, community members, and parents have the knowledge, skills, and tools to thrive in AI-powered education and careers.

Since 2011, we've impacted over 50,000 students and trained over 1,500 educators through partnerships with Code.org, the University of Texas at Austin, Google, DELL, the Mozilla Foundation, 3M, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the City of Austin, the Austin Community Foundation, and many others.

Artificial intelligence is transforming education, but without intentional inclusivity, it risks deepening existing inequalities. Our programs, including the Black Girls in AI Coding Makerspace and My Brother’s Keeper AI Coding Makerspace, directly address bias in AI by ensuring that learners develop, manage, and use AI tools that reflect their lived experiences and benefits them.

Through our AI Voice Chatbots for Social Justice Initiative, students design inclusive AI models that challenge systemic biases and uplift their communities. Learners also participate in AI literacy workshops to gain hands-on experience with AI tools for personalized education.

Why Your Support Matters

✅ Expand AI literacy programs to support more learners and adults

✅ Train educators on ethical AI use and prompt engineering for personalized learning

✅ Develop responsible AI tools that ensure fair and inclusive learning experiences

✅ Support students in inclusive AI development, helping them build AI-powered solutions for real-world challenges

Changing Expectations believes everyone should not just consume AI—we should be at the forefront of shaping it. With your help, we empower the next generation of AI developers, tech entrepreneurs, and changemakers.

Changing Expectations focuses our work on reaching out to unserved communities, low-income, aging individuals, LEP, rural, individuals with disabilities, and veterans who might otherwise not have access to quality STEM, tech, and AI skills preparation programs to close the opportunity gaps they face. To support our mission to broaden the participation of communities unserved and underserved in the STEM and digital workforce, our programs also include providing work-based learning opportunities through an AI internship for high school and HBCU students and educators.

Changing Expectations helps teachers, students, parents, and adults. We provide access to technical education and boost confidence, close opportunity gaps, build a better community, and ensure that people have the AI skills needed to compete in today’s ever-evolving marketplace.

Changing Expectations is an Austin-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides high-impact STEM, computer coding, and artificial intelligence education programs to inspire learners to pursue computing careers and tech entrepreneurship. We aim to increase learners' interest, engagement, and persistence in STEM and computer science education by fostering a sense of belonging, identity, and knowledge.

The Changing Expectations AI Coding Makerspace focuses on using AI technology to solve relevant problems that impact Central Texas communities. Participants engage in hands-on, project-based learning experiences, developing AI voice chatbots that address social justice issues. Our AI voice chatbot for social justice projects, including a six-year National Science Foundation-supported Changing Expectations CSforALL Research Practitioner Partnership (RPP) project, has successfully equipped participants with the skills and confidence to pursue careers in developing AI and technology.

We also collaborate with organizations like the U.S. National Science Foundation, DELL Technologies, the Austin Community Foundation, Google, the University of Texas at Austin, the Mozilla Foundation, and the City of Austin GTOPs program to provide mentorship, resources, and internship opportunities. Our commitment to digital opportunity ensures learners can access quality STEM, AI, and computer science education, empowering them to contribute meaningfully to the tech industry and their communities. Through these efforts, we aim to build career pathways, close the wealth gap, and build generational wealth for the community in the Austin, Texas area and around the United States.

For every dollar donated, we can help teachers, students, families, and adults.  We provide access to technical education and boost confidence, close opportunity gaps, build a better community, and ensure that people have the AI skills needed to compete in today’s ever-evolving marketplace.


Our research shows learning how to program has an impact in improving sequencing skills. If you get better at sequencing, it has a measurable positive effect on reading comprehension. A parent can have their kid engage in coding with the knowledge that a lot of kids won’t become programmers, but there is this broad-based benefit.
— Marina Umaschi Bers. Tufts University

 

Major AchievEMents 

  • Since 2011, Changing Expectations has supported over 50,000 underserved and underrepresented students both directly and indirectly by providing professional development for over 1,500 computer science teachers in partnership with Code.org, the University of Texas at Austin, the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

  • In 2016, invited to the White House for our work in STEM education for Black and Hispanic youth. For more info, see White House Visit — Changing Expectations