Student Stories

Anna

First Code Explorer Student. 11 Years Old. (Coding Languages: App Inventor, JavaScript, Python)

About Anna: Anna first started coding at age of 10, with her best friend from school. She quickly discovered her passion in coding, and participated in the annual AppJamming Summit, a regional app competition. She received the Best Presentation Award at the app competition, and subsequently was shortlisted to present her app at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AppInventor Summit in 2017.

Her First Code: Her proudest creation so far is a game app for her Grade 6 graduation exhibition, to express her passion in Gender Equality. The app quizzes users on tricky questions on gender bias, and brings out the awareness of subconscious bias.

Euan

First Code Creator Student. TEDx Speaker. 13 Years Old (Coding Languages: AppInventor, Python)

About Euan: Euan started coding at the age of 6 years old. Now at 13 years old, he has over half his lifetime of coding experience! Euan came to our AppJamming coding camp in 2013, where he first learned how to make mobile apps. He soon progressed into our Accelerator Program where he learned Python and Javascript. In 2015, he was invited to speak at TEDxYouth conference, where he shared his passion for coding.

Quote from: "Coding is actually a lot more fun than I thought it was. I like being able to interact with computers and learning how they work."

His First Code: His first piece of code was a Mother’s Day card programmed with Scratch, that greeted his mom Happy Mother’s Day.

Sarah

First Code Entrepreneur Student (Coding Languages: App Inventor, JavaScript, Python), 14 Years Old, Fashionista

About Sarah: Sarah started coding at 11 years old, when her father prompted her to get a first taste of coding at the AppJamming workshop. Since then, she has done App Development, JavaScript, and Python courses. The last two summers, she also did an internship at a Singapore Fashion startup, Gnossem. She aspires to be in the design industry when she grows up, or, a front end developer, “because that way I could live anywhere I want in the world (so long as I have access to Wifi)”. Talk about a digital nomad lifestyle!

Quote from: "I started learning to code mainly because my dad wants what's best for my future because he thinks that if I can code and speak Chinese to an extent, that it will help me get into college or jobs. I also wanted to learn to code because it's meant to be the language of the future, and I would like to be able to use it."

Her First Code: Her first app was an android app that "meows" when you tap it. “When I created that app, my favorite part was personalizing it/ the front end -- which still is my favorite part.”, she says.

Celeste

First Code Creator Alumnus, 16 Years Old, Graduate for Stanford Engineering Camps for High School students (Coding Languages: AppInventor, JavaScript, Python)

About Celeste: Celeste started learning to code with App Inventor, where she learned how to make her first mobile apps and games. She then quickly progressed into learning Python in the Python introductory coding course, a syntax-based programming language and made graphical representations and patterns based on PyTurtle. Celeste continued to self learn how to code, and was admitted to a selective 3-week summer program called Stanford Engineering Camps for High School students.

Quote from: "I was never really introduced to programming until it was briefly mentioned in one of my IT classes at school. I had always been a fan of computers and finding out that I could write code was so exciting. That is when I began learning code."

Her First Code: She made a fun game “RoachKill” in which the user needs to stop the cockroaches from eating the bentobox.