ColorStack

ColorStack

Company type	501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Genre	Diversity in computing Diversity, equity, and inclusion
Founded	May 2020 (2020-05) in Cornell University
Founder	Jehron Petty
Headquarters	New York, U.S.
Number of locations	60 (2025)
Area served	United States
Services	Academic advising Career development
Owner	Jehron Petty
Members	3,237 (2025)
Website	colorstack.org

ColorStack is a nonprofit student organization which offers academic advising and career development opportunities for computer science majors in the United States. The nonprofit was specifically designed for students from minority backgrounds as a means to improve diversity in computing.

The nonprofit was founded by Cornell University alumnus Jehron Petty in May 2020, after realizing his success in the computer science field was an "anomaly in the ecosystem". Through largely mentorship-based operations, the nonprofit hosts multiple in-person and virtual support programs and events. The goal of these events in often for its members to obtain scholarships and internships. In February 2025, the nonprofit had 60 chapters at universities across the United States, comprising of 3,237 members. Future goals stated were to increase brand recognition to be on-par with similar organizations like National Society of Black Engineers and Black Girls Code.

Activities

ColorStack is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It was designed to build connections between minorities majoring in computer science in the United States, providing academic advising and career development opportunities as a means of doing so. To accomplish this, the nonprofit organizes a number of events: including a 12-week computer science program, a three-week virtual career-building camp, and three-day virtual recruitment conference called "Stacked Up Summit". More commonly, however, smaller events are held which vary by location, but can include activities like learning technical skills, taking professional photos, networking, and attending conferences and speaker events with field professionals. Many of these events are mentorship-focused, with their end goal to have members to obtain scholarships and internships. Outside of computer science-related activities, some locations also hold social and cultural events, which also vary by location. At Binghamton University, a "Sip and Apply" event takes place where members eat foreign cuisines while applying to internships, and at Virginia Tech, pizza dinners are held to help members socialize ease fears about the field. Virtual events between universities like "hackathons" are also organized by the nonprofit. The nonprofit also hosts a community on the team communication platform Slack, where members can collaborate on coding and other personal interests.

History

The nonprofit was founded by Jehron Petty, a student at Cornell University majoring in computer science in the class of 2020. After working internships for Two Sigma and Google as a software engineer and product manager respectfully, Petty reportedly realized he was an "anomaly in the ecosystem", with the few other African American, Hispanic American, and Native American students studying with him not performing as well, which he credited to a lack of proper support. While still a student, Petty was co-president of the club Underrepresented Minorites in Computing at Cornell (URMC), in which he helped increase club membership, and became inspired by the impact it was having on the problem. Petty took many principles from this club, largely the focus on mentorship and inspiring and supporting minority students in computer science, to from an early version of ColorStack. With help and advice from Makinde Adeagbo, founder of the similar organization /dev/color, Petty made the club national and a nonprofit, and launched ColorStack as its own organization shortly after graduating in May 2020, fundraising nearly US$500,000. In August 2020, the nonprofit partnered with the technical recruiting platform Triplebyte, which agreed to incubate the nonprofit and provide it's operational funding for at least two years. Around this time, the nonprofit had 600 students across multiple schools. After one year, the nonprofit had grown to 1,000 students in its programs, and had raised over a million dollars from corporate sponsors and other investors. The nonprofit had also grown to be managed by four full-time employees and one intern. Further growth came after restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic lifted some which stopped some locations from beginning operations. In 2021, ColorStack gained Microsoft and Netflix as sponsors for one of their "Stacked Up Summit" events.

Some goals stated by Petty for the future of the nonprofit was to increase brand recognition to be on-par with similar organizations like National Society of Black Engineers and Black Girls Code, which he hoped to accomplish through increased marketing and operational support.

Locations

  States with chapter(s) present

The nonprofit is national, with 60 chapters at universities across the United States as of February 2025, comprising of 3,237 members. Some universities with chapters of the nonprofit include Kennesaw State University in Georgia, Northwestern University in Illinois, University of Nebraska–Lincoln in Nebraska, Binghamton University in New York, Virginia Tech in Virginia.

Reception to the nonprofit at the schools is overall positive. Director of undergraduate programs at Virginia Tech, Paige Johnson, remarked the nonprofit was the first they had seen to bring similar organizations like the National Society of Black Engineers and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers together under a centralized group. The nonprofit's chapter president at Binghamton University, Julian Ortiz, remarked the nonprofit gave an outlet and resources to students who largely came from backgrounds without them.