Selected as winner in Small Nonprofit category

Folks, it has been one strange week in Nashville.  Last Tuesday we got slammed by an EF3 tornado in the middle of the night. Hundreds, more likely thousands, of our friends and neighbors impacted. Businesses disrupted or destroyed. Lives lost. And many folks still trying to sort out how they recover from this. At Nashville Software School (NSS), we spent two days trying to make sure that a couple of hundred students, and 35ish staff and instructors, were safe and uninjured. As well as looking for ways in which NSS could in some way contribute to helping the community recover.

And then, the next day, we find out that we’ve been selected by the Nashville Business Journal as this year’s winner of the Best in Business award for small nonprofits. It’s a real honor for us to be selected. It’s recognition that we cherish and appreciate, even if this week feels like a strange time to be celebrating ourselves when our community and friends are suffering.  

But I do want to pause a moment to reflect on what this award means to us. For me, this award acknowledges the hard work that our team at NSS has invested over the past 8 years in 1000+ graduates. And our team works hard every day for our students. I’m so proud of all of the folks on the NSS team - both the current team members as well as all of the ones in the past - who have invested themselves so deeply in the success of our students.  

Because at a deeper level, this award is about the fact that NSS, with the support of so many employers and individuals in the Nashville tech community, has been able to offer Opportunity to over 1000 graduates. That’s the business we’re in — the opportunity business. The opportunity for students to acquire skills, to launch careers, to hopefully find a career they can be passionate about, and in lots of cases an opportunity to change their (and their family’s) life. 

Thank you to the Nashville Business Journal for selecting us for this year’s Best in Business award. And we promise you that we’ll continue to work hard to earn this award every day from today forward.