Our Vision
Enriching tertiary STEM education to unlock greater life opportunities.
Demographic
Our focus is on underserved communities
Since 2016
A Decade of Global Excellence in STEM Education
Palisadoes was created by a group of expatriate Jamaican information and communication technology (ICT) professionals. They wanted to assist the continued development of new and existing technologies for the benefit of the island.
Founded by Jamaican ICT professionals, we address the global digital divide by expanding our reach beyond Jamaica. The ICT sector offers economic growth, and our programs ensure local professionals compete globally.
Thousands of developers around the world have contributed over half a million lines of software code to our projects that help community based organizations manage their memberships. Palisadoes truly has a global impact.
Our Mission
We open pathways to software engineering education for under-served students.
Geographic
We focus on North America and the Caribbean region
Budget Goal
Covering most costs from our software project revenue
Since 2016
Making STEM students globally competitive for a decade
Our History
Globally advancing new and existing technologies to improve education.
Founded by Jamaican ICT professionals.
They wanted to assist the continued development of new and existing technologies for the benefit of the island. We quickly realized that there was a universal need for these services in underserved North American communities where the Jamaican diaspora live.
We have expanded our service region to include them and now we have multicultural international alumni around the globe.
Our Software Projects
Interns work on innovative open source software projects aimed at being locally relevant to the communities we serve. This allows both individuals and companies to rally behind our work. They realize that the internship experience translates into valuable skills and performance for the participant and their communities.
Our work in the USA
We have contacted numerous student organizations and academic staff to find the best way to provide software internships in our home, the San Francisco Bay Area.
Our work
Software Engineering for Social Impact
Internships for Underserved Communities
IEEE student branch — University of Technology, Jamaica
The IEEE student branch at the University of Technology, Jamaica’s core purpose is to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.
UWI Computing Society
The UWI Computing Society which is a launching pad for the development and exposure of the computing students of the University of the West Indies, with particular focus on undergraduate students. This Society aims to make the university population and the wider society more computer literate as well as educated in the efficient use of ICT in the industry and the wider society.
Jamaica Technology & Digital Alliance
The Jamaica Technology & Digital Alliance (JTDA) whose mission is to provide leadership in the promotion of the efficient and effective use of Information Technology in Jamaica. JTDA conferences have been distinguished by the participation of presenters and attendees from across the globe including the Caribbean, USA, Canada, UK and Europe.
Our Internship Programs
The Calico Challenge
The Calico Challenge summer internship program inspires university students to contribute to open source software projects under the guidance of IT professional mentors.
Stipends are paid upon achieving predefined goals. Past participants have been hired by Apple and WordPress; others have pursued postgraduate studies in North America and Europe.
We work with university professors, student groups, and our past Calico Challenge participants to track the impact of the program.
We have provided over 30 software development internships for Jamaican university students sponsored by Jamaican companies and the Jamaican immigrant community in North America.
Calico is very closely modeled on the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) initiative, which has very similar goals.
Google has run GSoC since 2005 and in 2016 over 1,500 students around the world participated.
However, Unlike Google:
- All our funding comes from donations from interested individuals and companies.
- Employees of many sponsors are often mentors for our students
- Students work on projects managed by the Palisadoes Foundation itself, not third parties.
- Many Calico students get hired by our corporate sponsors.
Our Board
Providing sound oversight of our work
Peter Harrison
President of the Palisadoes Foundation
The president of the Palisadoes Foundation is Peter Harrison. He is currently the Chief Technology Officer and a Co-Founder of Colovore. Colovore is a provider of high-density colocation solutions for companies operating high-performance IT hardware.
Peter has built the core web infrastructure for several of Silicon Valley’s internet titans. Most recently, Peter worked at Google where he helped manage global data center demand and capacity planning; the Google Fiber program and its initial data center infrastructure rollout. Peter previously led the network team that was responsible for the initial design and deployment of Netflix’s Internet video service.
Peter obtained his Computer Engineering undergraduate and postgraduate diplomas from the University of West Indies in Jamaica. By chance, Peter was recruited to support Y2K issues in the US, and found himself on a unique path to success. He is proof that the quality of Jamaican college education is strong, but it took chance opportunities to help him establish his place in Silicon Valley. He wants to ensure that Jamaican programmers who share his work ethic don’t have to wait for luck to develop their reputation in the growing world of Information Technology.
K.G. Charles-Harris
Secretary of the Palisadoes Foundation
K.G. Charles-Harris is also currently the Chief Executive Officer of Quarrio Corporation, a software company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to make it easy for average business users to do advanced reporting and analytics.
KG has founded, built, and sold three companies in the software, biotech and services and investment banking industries. He was named Global Entrepreneur of the Year by the United Nations and is a board member and advisor to several companies.
KG grew up experiencing a variety of different cultures. When he moved to Jamaica from Sweden during his teenage years, it changed his life and he fell in love with the country. One of his goals is to provide college students in disadvantaged countries the ability to keep pace with cutting edge technologies.
The Calico Project brings Jamaican computer science students the opportunity to experience real world open source coding and collaboration on an international level. KG helps Palisadoes provide great students great opportunities, and teach them how to align themselves for future ones.
Tennyson Williams
Treasurer of the Palisadoes Foundation
The treasurer of the Palisadoes Foundation is Tennyson Williams. He is a Senior Technical Project Manager at Comcast.
Tennyson has worked on projects for Google, PayPal, Cisco, and has also worked for Hewlett-Packard. He is passionate about the Palisadoes Foundation, and in particular the Calico Challenge, because it’s one of the few programs that has a direct impact on the students.
His forte is working on next generation technologies and products, which gives him great insight into what is required to stay current.
He knows they are getting exposure to real world technology and will have the opportunity for their contribution to have direct impact to solve real world issues. He believes these are the things needed to raise the knowledge base of the Jamaican next generation of software developers such that they can compete with the rest of the world.
Tennyson is also a past President of the Jamaican American Association of Northern California.
Our Sponsors
Thank You!
We sincerely appreciate the support of our sponsors as their generosity make our initiatives possible and help us provide resources and opportunities for students and professionals in the tech industry. Many corporations and individuals have contributed to our successful programs — this is a representative list.
Contact Us
How can we help you?
Get in touch through our various contact channels. We’re available to answer your questions, suggestions, and requests.
The Palisadoes Foundation
PO Box 518
Cupertino, California 95015 USA
Non-Profit Status
The Palisadoes Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) organization
Your donation is tax-deductible — IRS EIN: 81-1271871