Code For Change

Founding

I started this program at the end of my 10th grade year. Throughout high school and middle school, I attended STEM competitions and events where I was often the only black girl. As I learned more about systmatic racism in this country, I realized how part of the reason I was able to pursue STEM oppertunites, such as mathletes and coding summer camps, was because I had the finnicial oppertunity. I thought there was something small I could do, and started CODE FOR CHANGE: an organization where I create a currculum to teach children of color from tradtionally disadvantaged backgrounds programing. Since then, I have worked with kids from Hartford to Austin that are anywhere from preschool age to rising 9th graders.

Working With Orginizations

I run my project by working with non profits in my area over the summer and throughout the school year. I have worked with Horizons National at their Ethel Walker Location, Grace Academy in Hartford, iACT in Austin, and Breakthough Central Texas. These non profits provide educational oppertunites for first generation college students and refugees

The Kids

I have worked in primarly 2 cites: Hartford, CT (Summer 2019) & Austin, TX (Summer 2020). In Hartford I worked in Grace Academy's rising 5th grade class, an all girls program. At Horizons I volunteered as a TA and taught a coding extra-curicular for grades 3-6. In Austin I was hired as a math teacher for Breakthrough Central Texas and taught a coding extra-curcicular for 9th graders. In my 11th grade year, I worked with IACT, an orginization at my current school that tutors refugee children to teach a coding class. They are of vairous ages between late elementary and pre school years.

The Curriculum

I started my curriculum by working with my 10th grade Advanced Computer Science Teacher. We decided to use the Code.org currcculun for middle school students. And to this day I use code.org to direct my kids to "plugged" activites, where kids are actually coding on the computer. I have also used some of their worksheets on "unplugged actvities", where kids learn coding concepts through games. However, as I've continued teaching, I've ended up modifying some of the activities based on how privous kids responed. And I have also made up my own unplugged activities. The curriculum was especially modified when I was teaching during COVID-19

What I love About it

It's hard to put into words why I love this project so much. The best way to describe it is the look on the kids faces before and after I finish teaching them. When they hear that I am teaching coding, often times the kids I teach seem bored and unintreasted. I think this is becuase people have this idea that math and computer science is really complicated, and that only super smart people can do it. I like creating games with dancing, pop music, and art that teaches kids the fundamental ideas of computer programming, like how iteration is similar to the dance steps we made up for Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” and how finding IP addresses is similar to a game of tag. And ultimatly, I love when a kid comes up to me when I finish teaching, and tells me that they loved my coding lessons and that they are still doing coding games in their free time.

COVID 19

This summer I taught my lessons on Zoom. Although it was not ideal, I loved the way I got to customize my lesson even more and think about more creative ideas for teaching coding online.
This summer I was supposed to bring Code For Change to my aunt's orphange in Nairobi, Kenya. However, because of Covid-19 I wasn't able to travel, but I do plan on going to Kenya next Summer to teach lessons.

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