“A New Era of Impact: Young Coders Initiative and Breakthrough Miami Continue to Bridge the Tech Gap“
By Aryaman Jaggi, Young Coders Initiative Team Member
A new era begins for the Young Coders Initiative as Arihant Jaggi, a founding member, takes on the role of president, carrying forward the organization’s mission to empower young minds through computation literacy, as well as continuing its impactful collaboration with Breakthrough Miami to serve the under-resourced.
Though the Young Coders’ Initiative began as a simple idea to bridge the educational gap in computer science, often hosting small workshops at local libraries, our collaboration with Breakthrough Miami allowed us to truly fulfill our mission and make a lasting impact on our community and the new generation.
Historically, we have been able to teach at 5 of Breakthrough Miami’s host sites during the previous summers and school years, engaging over 200 students in interactive Python games and workshops, as well as presentations teaching them the basics of coding. We approached teaching by utilizing fun themes that we knew the students would love, such as Minecraft. However, under new leadership, we decided to try something a bit different. We developed our own personal Python courses that were specifically tailored to the students’ needs, so that they would be able to learn coding in the most fun and efficient ways possible. Alongside the exciting projects, including instances where the Scholars built their own games (block coding), or made Steve find the diamond (Minecraft Code – that we made sure to incorporate as well), the Scholars were able to engage in the Young Coders’ Initiative Python courses and finish a great portion of the chapters. Through our partnership with Breakthrough Miami, we are excited to say that we were able to transform and expose almost all of the Scholars to programming, thereby turning them into proficient Python Coders!
Rather than generalizing and explaining the program’s great results, the impact of our collaboration with Breakthrough Miami at the Miami Country Day host site is best seen in examples of the Scholar’s outstanding journeys. We would like to highlight one Scholar in particular: Liam Baehr, a 7th grader at Mater Biscayne, whose talent and dedication took all of our YCI mentors by surprise. Liam was always one of the first Scholars to finish the assignments, whether it was all the lessons in Minecraft Hour of Code or the projects assigned in the various Python Courses. However, one day during the final week of our program, we wanted to test him to gauge how much he had learned and measure his progress. In the beginning of class, we instructed Liam to create a calculator that performed all basic operations. Approximately 30 minutes later, Liam raised his hand and showed the calculator; he had successfully coded the program from a blank programming page (IDE: integrated development environment). Liam’s story goes to show how much he grew and was impacted by the program, and represents the remarkable growth a student can achieve when given the opportunity to learn.
Another Scholar that deserves recognition is Marc-Kerry Louis, a 6th grader who will be attending Miami Country Day School this fall. We had the pleasure of teaching and working with him during Breakthrough Miami’s 2025 Summer Institute at the Miami Country Day host site. Marc is an outstanding Scholar who has already been recognized, having been awarded the Christopher Bellow Scholarship. Much like Liam, his journey over the 3 weeks was extraordinary. From a first-hand perspective, we were able to witness not only his curiosity and interest when coding, but also his respectful nature when going about in our class. Marc always listened to instructors and made it a habit to learn every moment he was in class. He was quiet during lessons, but always raised his hand when in doubt. His journey was marked with remarkable growth, where the volunteers were able to witness his great strides within our Python Courses. Upon the end of our summer program, we discovered that Marc did not have a laptop at home. As we have done in past summers, the Young Coders Initiative makes sure to provide the most deserving Scholar in need with a device so that they can pursue their new found passion in coding, ensuring that nothing can stop them on their academic journey. Therefore, we decided that Marc’s dedication and enthusiasm must not go unrewarded, which is why we donated a laptop to Marc. As he stood up to take his laptop, his gratitude and immense joy filled the room, making us feel truly proud of Breakthrough Miami’s Scholars and the impact that was made, actively reminding us of the fortunate effect that our collaboration had. We hope this summer’s experience left a lasting impact on Marc and all the other Scholars, and that with this laptop, Marc can continue honing his coding skills and transforming his potential into reality.
Our collaboration and impact is best described by one of our partners at Breakthrough Miami, Beandys De Los Santos, Site Director at Miami Country Day School,
“They will never forget you guys!“
These words truly moved us and made us realize that our purpose is not only to teach coding, but to create moments, experiences, and skills that students will hopefully carry with them for a lifetime.
Though the Young Coders’ Initiative’s collaboration with Breakthrough Miami enters a new chapter, under its new leadership, our commitment to empowering students through computer science remains unwavering and stronger than ever. Our goal remains clear: to reach more students, spark more success stories, and to bridge the technology gap by igniting students’ passion to learn and grow. ♦
