Intel pledges $750,000 to help grow pool of Navajo code writers

Jolene Begay, an Intel engineer who is also head of the company's Native American Network, speaks Friday at a ceremony honoring Navajo Code Talkers in Window Rock, Ariz. Intel is granting $250,000 to three Navajo high schools in an effort to develop Native American coding talent.

SAN FRANCISCO — Seventy years ago today, Japan surrendered to the Allies to conclude World War II. Although the war's end was the result of many factors, few are perhaps as unsung as the contributions of Native American Code Talkers, Navajos who used their unique language as an unbreakable code for military communication.

Timed to honor the day also that celebrates the achievements of those Code Talkers, Intel announced Friday a $250,000-a-year grant for three years to a trio of Arizona-based Navajo Nation high schools to help their graduates become code writers.

    The initiative is part of a broader $300 million commitment by Intel toward making its 50,000-strong U.S. workforce — which like most tech companies is largely white and male — better represent national demographics.

"We know that if we're really going to fill in the (talent) pipeline, we need to aggressively address the gaps in that talent," says Barbara McAllister, deputy director of Intel's Diversity and Technology Initiative, adding that the funds are in support the recently announced Science Foundation Arizona's Code Talkers to Code Writers Initiative.