Student Coders of Virginia: An Introduction to my Nonprofit Organization

In my Sophomore year, I had the opportunity to volunteer through VEX robotics for the first time. Several hundred Elementary School students entered the Academies of Loudoun for a Computer Science Family Fun Night, and I was responsible for setting up and running a robot soccer game. The game was played using simple VEX robots that could move around, and the goal was to get as many points as possible before the time ran out. At first, I was not very enthusiastic about the idea, as I thought the students would not be super interested in it and would need help with the robot. However, as the students began to play the game, their faces lit up, and they loved it. The several hours of preparation for the game suddenly became worth it, and watching them scream and shout in excitement was a great payoff for the hard work that we had done. Even after the students left our station, they were visibly more excited than when they had come in. By the time Fun Night was done, it was clear that everyone had helped inspire hundreds of students to pursue their newfound passion in coding, engineering, or robotics. This really hit home for me, as I had spent the better part of my freshman year looking into different fields and trying to find something that truly inspired me. I eventually stumbled across coding, but I would have saved nearly a year of my time if I had stumbled across some resource or event similar to the Family Fun Night. However, most people do not want to go out of their way to try something that they only might like. After trying to think of a solution for this, I eventually thought up the idea that would be the basis for Student Coders of Virginia.

To put the problem another way, most people, especially students, couldn't go out of their houses to try something they only might like, such as coding. As a result, a few friends and I created Student Coders of Virginia as a solution. Student Coders of Virginia allows students, especially those in Elementary and Middle school, to learn the basics of computer science through group classes. From there, Student Coders of Virginia offers free tutoring sessions and more resources to those who want to learn more. Students are suggested, but not required, to take the group classes before taking on the tutoring or the other resources. Held once a week, the group classes teach what code is, why it is essential, and the basics of coding. We also emphasize that coding is fun and spend several minutes in the class identifying motivation for each student to code, such as creating a new video game or helping the world. After the class, students are given several outside resources and a link to our One-on-One tutoring to help them advance in their computer science education even more. One-on-One tutoring has several different pathways, depending on the skill level and interest of the student. Each session is highly personalized, although we have in-depth lesson plans for game development and web development specifically. Finally, we are developing other resources, including a YouTube channel for video classes and a study group for those who want to study for the AP CSA and AP CSP exams as they come closer. More information can be found at the nonprofit's website, StudentCodersOfVirginia.com. 

Although we had many new ideas to bring to the table when we started, the development of Student Coders of Virginia was not easy. To start, within a month, over half of our team had left, and at some point, I found myself looking at just my friend Moustapha Ba and me. At this point, we decided to be Co-Presidents and Founders, and each of us was in charge of different parts of the nonprofit. We quickly made progress and even got several more volunteers to help us get set up. After many weeks of trial and error, we eventually found a team composition that worked phenomenally. After another few weeks of making progress, we were all set for our first group class. Although only a couple of students attended, our class went great. All the students were engaged, and looked like they wanted to learn more when the class ended. After many hours of preparation, I finally felt like I had finally started to make at least a small difference. Although our first class was only last week, many people are signing up for future group classes and One-on-One tutoring. In addition, the development of our other resources has started to pick up, and I am very excited to see what our nonprofit can bring to the world in the coming months and years!

Special thanks to: Moustapha Ba, Vignesh Thallam, Connor Barkman, Aarnav Nair and Ved Sheth