Montgomery County high school students are taking charge of educating students around the world about computer science through a youth-led initiative called Kids for Code.
Founded by a group of students in 2020, Kids for Code provides free live computer science classes to children globally. Since they started, the volunteer-led organization has taught nearly 5,000 students from more than 13 countries and 40 states.
The current president of Kids for Code is Ahana Samantray, a rising junior at Montgomery Blair High School. Samantray has been involved with the organization since the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been teaching computer science for four years now. She believes that, during the pandemic, there was a lack of education for computer science in school. She says her passion for the subject fueled her involvement with Kids for Code.
“We have students in many different countries. We’ve had teachers from places like Uzbekistan. So when I saw that it reached internationally, that was something that was very shocking to me,” said Samantray. “We have classes that are unconventional, like machine learning and game programming and a lot of the kids really like that. It really showed me that this is really reaching people and it is really making an impact.”
She believes that Kids for Code is providing a chance for kids to learn about things they are interested in outside of school.
“For me, computer science is definitely something I think is super important. Just to have a baseline in computer science and skills that you can use in the future,” said Samantray. “I think computer science is very useful to learn. I’ve found myself using it in school and in internships.”
Samantray believes that Kids for Code provides valuable skills and lessons while also giving students a place to share their passion for computer science.
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