V School, a Salt Lake City-based technical school, is teaming up with Meta and Sustainable Startups to provide one full-ride scholarship, and $1 million in partial scholarships, to women in Utah Valley.

According to the V School website, The “You Belong in Tech” Scholarship is meant to help recognize the value of diversity in the tech industry, and will be offered to women, and members of other underrepresented groups, interested in pursuing a career in technology.

In total, 35 applicants will receive $4,000 scholarships and one applicant will receive a full scholarship, worth $21,000.

“The whole point is to bring mothers and women and those who have had less access and less opportunity into tech,” said Mo Reeder, COO and co-founder of V School. “And to show them that you can make an awesome salary, you can work from home if you want to… We’re blessed to be in a space where awesome partners like Meta want to fund our education to help people land great jobs at places like Meta.”

These funds can be used for V School’s online web development and UX/UI design programs. V School’s programs are outcomes-based, so students don’t graduate until they are able to find a job in the tech industry. Additionally, V School courses are mastery-based, meaning that students move through the work at their own pace.

“Everyone’s got a very complex life, so not everyone can just quit what they’re doing and go to school full-time,” Reeder said. “Some people need longer to complete the coursework, some people need to take six months, nine months, a year — for us there is no time associated with V School, it’s up to you.”

Reeder wants to get the message out that there is a place in the male-dominated tech industry for women and minorities.

“I think it’s been kind of hard to crack into if you’re someone of color, if you’re a veteran if you’re a woman,” he said “We’re getting the information out there that there are jobs, that these companies do want to hire women, they do want to hire moms that want to get back into the workforce.”

V School, Meta and Sustainable Startups will host an information session on the You Belong in Tech Scholarship at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at Kiln in Lehi. There will be a sound bath, tech education panels and refreshments. Each attendee will receive a $4,000 scholarship to V School.

To apply for the You Belong in Tech Scholarship, people can visit https://vschool.io/scholarships. Applications for the full-ride scholarship to V School are currently open, and will close on Nov. 1. Scholarship winners will be announced on Nov. 8.

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