Business Executive Pays it Forward by Teaching Children the Power of Coding

Nikole Vaughn, BBA ’96, MSTC ’04, was fresh out of college and working for Andersen Consulting, which later became Accenture. Her first project was in Houston, and she had to learn to write computer code. Though it wasn’t easy, it changed her life. “It showed me how much is truly possible through technology,” she says.

Now, Vaughn is an executive vice president and COO of Commonwealth Computer Co. in San Antonio, which helps government agencies, colleges, and universities with their technology acquisitions. She also runs the Coding Collaborative, where volunteers teach coding to children. Some parents couldn’t see the value of the skill, she said, so with the help of a friend, she started offering free classes in 2016.

From 20 students in a San Antonio public library to hundreds of learners online and in person at a local college, the program has continued to grow. In a way, the collaborative lets her repay some of the mentoring she received at the University.

While earning her BBA, Vaughn moved from working for the dean of students and the Neighborhood Longhorns Program to working for her father’s company, Commonwealth Trading Co. She was board secretary and Austin area sales agent. Vaughn would comb Texas newspapers in the Perry-Castañeda Library for open technology bids. “I would work bids between classes. After classes, I visited state agency sites to help with installations,” she says.

Vaughn cites the encouragement of marketing professor David Huff, Assistant Dean Arthur Allert, and many others for inspiring her. Huff let her take part in a graduate-level class involving the launch of Ebonique cosmetics, hair care, and skin care — a project “close to my heart,” she says.

“Although I was an undergraduate student, he allowed me to dabble a bit with the graduate students through the entire project life cycle to launch. A spark was lit,” she says.

A few years later, she would be back at McCombs earning a Master of Science in Technology Commercialization. That degree was “an exact fit for me,” she says.