This post was updated on August 31, 2020.

We’re passionate about our community of learners, including students that use Codecademy in the classroom and at home. At the beginning of March, we started to hear about school closures in the United States and around the world due to COVID-19. As we closed our offices and shifted to remote work ourselves, we knew we wanted to do something to continue to make education more accessible.

On March 14, we launched a scholarship program with a goal of giving away 10,000 Codecademy Pro scholarships to students affected by the pandemic. We were blown away by the response. We hit 10,000 within the first 3 days. One month later, we had awarded over 100,000 Pro scholarships to students at 15,000 institutions in 147 countries around the globe.

As students head back to school for the fall semester, we know this year is going to be different. That’s why we’re excited to announce a brand new discounted membership for college students — and a whole collection of resources for the new school year. Find out more in our Student Center.

During our student scholarship campaign, it was exciting to see how teachers and students, empowered by our scholarship program, were able to use Codecademy to continue learning during this challenging time.

It’s also been inspiring for us to see just how quickly this program grew — and how global it became. So, to celebrate our 100,000 scholarship learners, we thought we’d share some of the data and insights from the program that we were most excited about.

Reaching 100,000 scholarships

When we launched the scholarship program one month ago we set a goal of giving away 10,000 scholarships. It seemed like an ambitious goal, and we were hopeful we’d meet it — or at least come close.

The Codecademy team wanted to get something out by Monday, March 16 to support the students and teachers impacted by school closures. We banded together and, within 48 hours, launched the scholarship program on a Saturday afternoon.

The following Monday, we found ourselves constantly refreshing our data to check how many learners had signed up for the scholarship. When we saw 50 students from the same organization in Argentina sign up within the same hour, we were seeing an example of good network effects. Students and teachers were sharing resources on how to continue learning.

By the end of Monday, three days from our initial launch date, we were shocked to learn there were 5,000 scholarship sign ups — already halfway towards the goal we initially set for ourselves. We were faced with a decision: we could cap our scholarship program at 10,000 or keep going. We decided to keep going and, one month later, we’ve given away 100,000 scholarships.

Connecting with students around the globe

The most surprising part for us is how international our learners are. Two out of three scholarship learners come from outside of the United States. At times, the top city for scholarship sign ups can be as near as New York City, where Codecademy HQ is located, and as far as Lagos and the Maldives.

Today, we have scholarship learners coming from 147 countries, 11,000 cities, and 15,000 organizations around the world. These learners join the 45 million other learners using Codecademy. Together (but apart), our learners are taking courses on web development, data science, game design, and more.

We are living through strange and scary times. Being able to support our learners during this time has given the team at Codecademy something to rally around. Rather than nerve-inducing charts projecting the growth of virus, it’s felt comforting to see network effects, community clusters, and growth rates contextualized in a positive light.

Support for learning from home

While we’ve now turned our attention to supporting unemployed and furloughed workers affected by COVID-19, we still have a growing collection of resources for students. Our Learn From Home hub features a variety of programs and resources for learners. Plus, we’ve partnered with a number of partners on the Learn From Home Club, offering resources and special programs.

Here at Codecademy, we’re doing what we can to ensure that learning doesn’t stop during this challenging time. Thanks for joining us!