Exploring Life & Business with Ernest Holmes of CodeHouse

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ernest Holmes.

Ernest, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in Sayreville, New Jersey, a small predominantly white town. Being one of a few Black students in honors and AP classes, I was content on going to Rutgers University with the rest of my class. My sister, however, took a leap of faith and decided to attend Spelman College. After seeing all the great opportunities that she was granted (visiting many countries, 1-1 interactions with politicians, celebrities, and notable figures) I decided to give Morehouse College a chance. At the same time, I decided to try computer science class in high school. Once I realized the true power and impact that computer science granted me, I was sold on the technology field on my field of choice for a profession. At Morehouse College, I was committed on landing a summer internship after my freshman year. I was lucky enough to participate in the Google In Residence Program which a Google software engineer taught my freshman computer science class. He described the Google Internship to us in great detail(how much you got paid, the kind of projects you would work on, etc.) Before I knew it, I would be interviewing with Google and then heading to California to complete my first Google internship. While at Morehouse, I completed three internships at Google, each based in California.

I would also decide to major in both computer science and mathematics, cross into Alpha Phi Alpha, Fraternity, Inc, and eventually start CodeHouse with Tavis Thompson. The inspiration behind CodeHouse came from the consistent ask of middle schools, high schools, communities centers for me to speak about my experience being a Black engineer at Google. We decided to have a major event hosted at Morehouse College where 150 middle and high school students from Atlanta would learn about HBCUs, how HBCUs are connected to the tech industry, and what people of color in tech do. After success in this first event, we decided to make CodeHouse into a 501c3 nonprofit and would continue to have a second Tech Exposure Day event for 400 Atlanta Based students, then a third event virtually in which 2000 students from 26+ states attended. We now added a second initiative, CodeHouse Scholars Initiative, which provides wrap-around support for incoming HBCU freshmen students interested in tech. Each student would participate in a 4-week summer academy to develop professional and technical skills, a year-long mentorship program where they receive one mentor from the tech industry (PayPal, Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Liveramp, etc.), and one upperclassman mentor, and finally $20,000 in academic scholarship. We are currently in the middle of running our first cohort of 29 scholars and have raised $3 million in funding.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My biggest struggle has always been putting too much on my plate. Right now for instance, I am still a full-time Technical Program Manager at Google while also President of CodeHouse. The only thing that makes all this feasible is the support of my family and friends. It truly takes a village to generate this kind of impact.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
CodeHouse is a 501c3 Nonprofit focused on supporting and exposing students of color to the technology field and pathways that lead there. We have two main initiatives. The first is Tech Exposure Day in which Middle and High School students can engage with Black and Latinx professionals in the tech industry and different STEM-based programs that they can be involved in. The second is the CodeHouse Scholars Initiative which is a wrap-around support program for incoming HBCU freshmen interested in the tech industry. Each scholar participates in a 4-week summer academy to develop technical skills, engage with tech companies like PayPal, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, etc., and build professional skills. The scholars also receive two mentors, an industry mentor and a collegiate mentor. Lastly, each scholar receives $20,000 in academic scholarships.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I find mentors in some of the people who are closest to me. My family and closest friends are some of my greatest mentors. When it comes to finding a great mentor, it’s important to always know what you want from that mentor and help guide the conversation to where it can be insightful and beneficial.

My general advice for networking is to get people to speak well on your behalf. When your personal brand is endorsed by others, it helps draw in a bigger network of more people who want to know you as well.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: thecodehouse.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ernest_holmes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ernest.holmes.9
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErnestHolmes13
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/encZzUbrgJU
• Other: ernestdvholmes.com, CodeHouse Socials: Twitter/IG: @codehouseorg

Image Credits
Emani Saucier – emanirashad.com / saucierfilms.com