At the beginning of December each year, Code.org, a non-profit dedicated to promoting computer science education in schools, hosts Computer Science Education Week. Events are held around the world to ignite their efforts for K-12 students and foster a love of learning.
Part of this initiative includes Hour of Code, a tutorial that exposes kids to code in an engaging and entertaining way. Jonathan Carter, a Software Developer here at PrecisionLender, spent some time conducting Hour of Code workshops for 6th-8th graders at Ligon Middle School in Raleigh, NC.
Knowing his audience, Jonathan worked through a simple, Star Wars-themed coding tutorial with the kids. They were able to see their work come to life by dragging and dropping blocks of pre-set code to move BB-8 (a droid from the movie) around on the screen. He then walked them through an introduction to writing JavaScript. Ultimately, the goal of the workshop was to introduce the students to the fundamentals of coding, such as loops, events, and conditional statements.
Jonathan loves programming and uses four different coding languages on a regular basis. However, he wasn’t introduced to programming until the 11th grade. For him, volunteering with the students meant more than sharing his passion. His goal was “to inspire them early on to start thinking about what they want to do with their lives while showing them how cool programming is.” This was Jonathan’s fourth year volunteering for Hour of Code.
Our Sales and Marketing team also spent some time volunteering at the Western Wake Crisis Ministry (WWCM). WWCM is a locally funded organization in Raleigh, NC that touches the lives of over 200 families every month. Their mission is to provide aid to those in temporary or long term crisis who are unable to provide for their basic needs.
The goal that day for the team was to assemble Thanksgiving meals for local families, starting with the Thanksgiving essentials. Every bag contained stuffing, green beans, cornbread, mashed potatoes, pie pastry, pie filling, and a bag of flour. To go along with these items, they also packaged bags with fresh produce, such as sweet potatoes, onions, and apples.
Every family would receive one of each kind of bag, ensuring they had everything they needed to prepare the perfect Thanksgiving dinner. A few delicious recipes were also included as suggestions.
According to WWCM, the meals were successfully delivered throughout the community just in time for the holiday.
Overall, the team packaged 150 Thanksgiving meals for local families and had a lot of fun in the process.
If you would like to give back to this wonderful organization, don’t hesitate to visit their website at www.wwcm.org. Every little bit helps.
