![]() ![]() “I think the passion, the drive that these kids have is something that you don’t see in your ordinary kid, because I know that they had to work 10 times harder to be here,” Ogbonna said. Jason Gibson at community event recruiting students and tutors for Hood Code. A 2021 Pew Research analysis found that Black and Latino adults are less likely to earn STEM degrees than degrees in any other field, and they make up a lower share of STEM graduates compared to other populations. And I didn’t even know that jobs in coding existed,” Outar said.īlack people made up 9% of the STEM workforce in 2021, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. I didn’t have a computer until basically high school, when I had to do online school. If you want the bird to FLAP when you CLICK the mouse. If you take a look at the workspace, there are some green blocks that are filled in for you - these are 'event handlers'. Under the hood, each of these blocks is represented by real code. “I think it’s because we both come from low-income communities, we understand. The code youll write involves dragging and dropping blocks that represent commands for the computer. She and her friend Sara Outar decided to take on the job together. She’s a high school senior and a tutor at Hood Code. “Coding is not always necessarily accessible to kids that we teach,” Chigo Ogbonna said. Gibson used that entrepreneurial spirit to gather sponsors and community members to ensure that Hood Code would be free for students and a paid job for tutors, many of whom are in high school. Learn how to make a fun and interactive Flappy Bird game on Scratch, a free coding tool for kids. I could have been maybe one of the big tech founders.” ![]() “I’ve always been an entrepreneur, I’ve always had that spirit. “I think my life could have possibly been different,” Gibson said. Jason Gibson, back left, stands with Hood Code students as they receive their participation certificate. Those disadvantages inspired Gibson to provide his community with opportunities that he says he wished he had growing up. “And I realized how much of a disadvantage I was at and how kids from my neighborhood are in.” “That was my first opportunity to really sit down and read,” Gibson said. While serving a five-year sentence, Gibson spent most of his time expanding his knowledge and researching both the tech industry and African American history. Gibson founded Hood Code in 2019, but the idea for the program was born two years prior - from behind bars. Many of the kids embark on quests to make their own video games or re-create their favorites, finding inspiration in games like Flappy Bird and Geometry Dash. ![]()
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