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“Coding the Future: Young Coders Initiative and Breakthrough Miami Join Forces”

By Aryaman Jaggi, Young Coders Initiative Team Member

In the heart of Miami, a powerful collaboration is opening doors for bright young minds. The Young Coders Initiative, a youth-led organization founded by high school student Aryaman Jaggi, has partnered with Breakthrough Miami to bring coding skills to underserved communities.

Our journey began with a simple idea: to bridge the gap in computer science education. We started small, hosting workshops at local libraries, but our vision was always bigger. When we connected with Breakthrough Miami, we found a perfect ally in our mission to empower young learners.

Together, we’ve worked towards bridging the technology gap, conducting engaging computer science education workshops at 5 of Breakthrough Miami’s sites through the summer and the school year. Our curriculum (designed to engage students and make them excited about learning) encourages group collaboration, fosters one-to-one relationships with our volunteer mentors/teachers, and draws on the themes our students love – like Minecraft! During our sessions, students have the opportunity to dive into exciting projects like building their own websites, video games, and more. We are happy to say that through our work with Breakthrough Miami, we have been able to expose 200+ Breakthrough Scholars to the field of computer science, with almost all of the students we worked with during the summer program becoming proficient in Python/Web-Development.

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However, the true impact of this partnership can’t be described with just numbers. Rather, it is best illustrated with the personal stories of students like Ishmael. Ishmael was a Breakthrough Miami Scholar we worked with during the summer of 2024 at Breakthrough’s Country Day site. Over the course of four weeks, we witnessed his remarkable growth and enthusiasm for coding. Despite not having a laptop at home, Ishmael’s dedication and passion for learning shone through in every session. At the end of the program, we decided to reward Ishmael for his outstanding dedication by giving him a laptop. His reaction touched us all. In a letter he wrote to us afterwards , Ishmael shared,

“My experience with Young Coders Initiative was very thrilling and fun. It was also very competitive because we would play Quizizz and code on websites for prizes and candy. In addition, we would do Blookets for fun. Participating in Blooket and Quizizz was just the tip of the iceberg. We also got to code text-based AI to input certain type of texts and random images. We used websites liked code.org and code dojo and it was complex but very exciting. Everytime we had coding elective, I always tried my best. I felt grateful to have won the laptop. I feel this way because I was blessed with an opportunity others weren’t gifted with. I was actually surprised when they had called my name because I’ve never won anything before, but I’m so happy my hard work paid off. I hope to continue to get better at coding to go to college and major in Computer Science. Thank you Young Coders Initiative for the laptop.”

This moment moved our entire team. Seeing the impact of our efforts materialize in such a tangible way – not just in teaching coding skills, but in potentially changing the trajectory of Ishmael’s educational journey – was incredibly rewarding. It’s exactly the reason we do what we do.

Our partners at Breakthrough felt the same way. Ms. Beandys, Breakthrough Miami Site Director at Miami Country Day School, shared her thoughts:

“Young Coders Initiative, I wanted to express my heartfelt gratitude for the profound impact you had on our Breakthrough Miami scholars at Miami Country Day School. Your coding elective not only taught our students valuable skills but also ignited their passion for coding. Your dedication and expertise are truly remarkable. We’re thrilled to have collaborated with you and look forward to continuing our partnership this fall. A special thank you for generously gifting a laptop to Ishmael Codio, enabling him to pursue his coding aspirations. Your influence will undoubtedly have a lasting impact on our scholars. We appreciate your commitment to empowering the next generation of coders.”

The Young Coders Initiative’s partnership with Breakthrough Miami proves that when passionate students and dedicated educators come together, we can create powerful opportunities for learning and growth. We’re not just hosting coding programs – we’re coding a brighter future for Miami’s youth. Together, we’re opening doors, igniting passions, and empowering the next generation of tech leaders. As we continue this journey, we look forward to reaching even more students, creating more success stories like Ishmael’s, and further bridging the technology gap in our community.
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