In this episode, Core Conversations host Maiclaire Bolton Smith sits down with Kagan Coughlin, co-founder of Base Camp Coding Academy in Water Valley, Mississippi.

The academy is a hands-on, tuition-free program that seeks to train students to be software developers within 12 months, and in a time where the cost of higher education is increasing, Kagan describes how the program opens doors to students who may have otherwise not had the opportunity--and how this program is a model for how the rest of the country can think about higher education in rural America.