Code Ninjas

During the Spring and Summer of 2021, I worked at a local branch of Code Ninjas, which is an organization committed to sparking interest in computer science in young children. This company gives these children a time and space to be able to build skills in computer science through a wide variety of fun and interactive lessons and challenges. The progression is modeled after the typical martial arts belt system, where students start as a white belt and in the process of building skills progress through belts until they become a black belt. This system incentivizes children to want to continue in their studies of computer science from the very beginning and most basic concepts.

As a Code Sensei, I was in charge of running this after school program which met each day of the week for a couple of hours in the evening. I oversaw about 15 kids each day, and was there to provide insight, advice, and assistance to ensure each student was successfully making progress in their work as an early computer scientist. 

Additionally, during the summer weeks, summer camps were offered, and some of which I ran. These summer camps covered topics such as programming a custom video game and adding unique items into Roblox through modification of the existing game. Each camp was made up of about 15-20 kids, and two summer camps would run simultaneously with at least one instructor each. For an example of one of the camps I instructed, I led a group of kids through the process of creating their own pizza video game. The premise was simple: A pizza was controlled at the bottom of the screen by the user's cursor, and toppings would fall down from the top of the screen, which must be caught on the pizza. However, not everything should be caught on the pizza, as there were objects like dirty shoes which did not belong on pizza. The speed of the items falling would increase until the user either caught too many non-topping items, or they let too many toppings fall to the ground. Each day, we would work on implementing a different part of the game, so that by the end of the week each student had their very own version of the demo game. They would customize the various sprites being used and the gameplay based on whatever piqued their interest.

During my time with Code Ninjas, along with the other Code Senseis, I was able to cultivate a positive and fun environment for these kids to come in and learn programming skills at their own pace. It was clear that each kid would come in thrilled to be there and over-excited to get started with their projects. Sometimes it was even difficult for them to accept that they had to leave for the day, as we were closing.

Through this experience I learned valuable leadership and interpersonal skills to be able to successfully run the after-school program as well as the summer camps each week. Being able to navigate tough situations with children is not easy, but I was able to ensure everything ran smoothly each and every day.