Our story

MVGATE grew out of Mill Valley's Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) PTA in 2012, becoming an independent 501c3 nonprofit public charity and taking inspiration both from the GATE parent activists who came before and from community educational nonprofits such as Kiddo.

Thousands of children in Marin County have begun to learn computer science and coding through MV GATE programs. The Marin-based non-profit has provided nearly 100 coding and computer science classes at more than a dozen Marin schools, with new classes and schools being added at a steady pace.  MV GATE’s work in computer science has been covered on the front page of the New York Times, The Marin IJ, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Mill Valley Herald, celebrating a breakthrough model of bringing children empowering computer science learning earlier than ever before.  

MV GATE’s Full STEAM Ahead program represents an important expansion of classes offered, with new focus on engineering, math, and an increasing range of STEAM topics.

MV GATE was founded by Mill Valley parents to create advanced learning opportunities for their children, leveraging idle school assets, parent and community resources, and the present golden age of superb and often free online learning resources now available.  Curating the best of such resources and building a dynamic range of programs, Full STEAM Ahead brings a rich range of learning to Marin kids in any grade, in any participating school, at no cost to any school or District, now.

For information on bringing Full STEAM Ahead programs to your school, contact MV GATE at <email>.

Co-founders John Pearce and Jeff Leane are Mill Valley parents with diverse entrepreneurial and technology backgrounds and a desire to build a replicable layer of advanced learning in partnership with any interested school.  Essential contributors also include Kathy Cramer, founder of the National Work Family Alliance, and Elizabeth Leane, computer science professional and ardent advocate for innovative learning for kids.

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