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About UsCoderDojo is a global movement of free volunteer-led programming clubs for ages 7-17.
At CoderDojo Austin, attendees learn more than how to code, they EXPLORE CODE with the Raspberry Pi, Makey Makey and Micro:bit. Kids are given the opportunity to earn "belts" for attendance and the skills they've learned. Part of the process of earning the belts is to do some social good with the skills they've learned. Peer to peer mentoring is highly encouraged. Since 2015, CoderDojo Austin continues to meet the first three Fridays of the month in North and Northwest Austin. |
Who We Are
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Noah Garcia (Peer Mentor) started programming at age 6 in Scratch. In a few months, he moved onto Python and now at age 13 he is writing in many languages C++ including Unity. As a peer mentor, he is available to help with anything from installing Python to troubleshooting code or "debugging." One day he hopes to be a professional programmer.
David Hayes (Mentor) is a father, programmer and a musician. He graduated from the University of Texas with a BS in Computer Science. Since graduation, he has worked at a variety of startups and big companies. David's been programming in a wide variety of programming languages including C, Python and JavaScript. When he is not working as a programmer or playing with his son, he enjoys working on a Metroidvania game written in JavaScript. He is interested in all things design-y and game developement related. Miriam Leal (Champion and Mentor) is an amateur programmer with a background in management. She started CoderDojo Austin for her son (then 8) to meet like minded youth to share in his passion for programming. As a mentor she teaches programming in Scratch, HTML and CSS. She is currently learning Python with Women Who Code Austin and PyLadies Austin. Norman Richards (Mentor) studied Computer Science at University of Texas at Austin and has been a professional programmer for nearly 20 years. During this time, he has worked for countless startups, authored 3 programming books, written for several programming magazines and traveled the world, going as far as Brazil and China, to speak and teach. In his spare time he helps run several local developer meetups and teaches programming classes at Austin Community College. He is also the instructor for Westwood High School's Girls Who Code club. He currently works for ThreatGRID doing malware analysis. His favorite programming language is Clojure. Rick Sladewski (Mentor) is a wandering mountaineer, homeschool dad, and mostly-retired SAS programmer. He is interested in using Jupyter Notebooks and Anaconda Python as a framework for teaching computer science and math concepts. His favorite programming languages are Python, Julia, R, and ProcessingJS. Philip Standiford (Mentor) borrowed a library book about BASIC as a kid, typed the code, and never got it to work. Much later he learned some HTML and C++, but was blown away by the magic of Scratch! As an engineer turned librarian, he has experimented with Raspberry Pi, macros, Python, Unity, Minecraft Mods, and other block coding platforms. Jose Tamez (Mentor) is a programmer and a entrepreneur. He graduated from TecMilenio University with a BS in Computer Science. He started his own startup company in Mexico that focuses in front-end development for local business. He also completed his master’s degree on IT Management in Guadalajara, Mexico. Jose has been programming in Java/JavaScript. Currently he works for a Consulting firm as a Developer. |
Global Movement
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CoderDojo is a global movement originally founded by James Whelton and Bill Lao in Ireland. It all started in James Whelton's school in early 2011 when James (then 18 year old coder) received some publicity after hacking the iPad Nano. As a result or his new found attention, some younger students expressed an interest in learning how to code. He set up a club in his school (PBC Cork) where he started teaching students HTML and CSS. Later that year he met Bill Lao, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, who was interested in growing the project bigger.
As of May 2015 there are 675+ verified Dojos in 57 countries and growing everyday. |
