By Maya Williams
‘The place where it all started’
At the age of 12, I discovered my passion and love for coding during a weekend workshop with the Girl Scouts of Greater New York and Vidcode. This event was the start of the coding journey I’m going to share with you.
Ever since that day, I’ve sought to be a part of every program Girl Scouts of Greater New York has offered with Vidcode ...at least two or three. These programs are called Breaking the Code and The STEM Next Academy.
During these after school programs, we coded video projects about ‘Education for All’ and other pressing topics. We also coded fun videos before all of our more pressing project concepts.
After spending so much time at these events I essentially became a TA; helping the younger girls when the staff couldn’t handle all of them at once. At one of these programs, Leandra (co-founder of Vidcode) and I presented together in front of a large audience.
At the age of 14, Leandra (co-founder of Vidcode) and I finally spoke, and you’ll never guess what happened...she offered me an internship! I was beyond excited about this and I really couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t my first internship, but it’s the first one that I got on my own.
Presenting at the Whitney, summer 2019
‘Working over the summer and school year’
I interned at Vidcode over the summer of 2019 for about two weeks and it was the best two weeks. I had fun working alongside another Girl Scout who was interning as well that summer.
We helped modernize the Vidcode website as well as helped test out programs and lessons. It was really awesome learning from Leandra and Miles, in addition to seeing the behind the scenes of processes of creating programs and parts of the website. I got to experience what it would be like to work in a real office with other people. It was an amazing real world experience, it prepared me for what I want to do when I graduate college.
After my summer internship I was given the opportunity to come back to Vidcode and work during my school year, and lucky for me I had plenty of breaks and holidays from school. By continuing to engage with the team, I got even more time to learn and be a part of the Vidcode staff.
‘Why did you intern with Vidcode’
I interned with Vidcode for countless reasons, not only because I was comfortable with the site but because I also wanted to bring my ideas to the table and wanted to bring them to the table. I believed my ideas would modernize the site a bit (we still had Grumpy Cat Lessons...) and make it more appealing for the people using Vidcode who are my age or younger.
‘My favorite project created with Vidcode’
My favorite creative project that I’ve made in Vidcode was my project called ‘Science Time’. It’s a button project that starts with an image of a cat, then when you press the button it goes from ‘Sleep Mode’ to ‘Awake Time’. Finally, when you click on it for a third time Bill Nye pops up and the button changes to ‘Science Time’. I love it!
My favorite informational project is ‘Education For All’ where a group of Girl Scouts where we created a video speaking about the unfair system in schools.
https://www.vidcode.com/share/Hgzwie05rz
What’s next in your coding journey?
I’m not quite sure what my next journey is but I’m positive I’ll be majoring in Computer Science along with Animal Science; I’ll be double majoring in college. I also want to continue to help out at Vidcode as much as I can. I hope to make a living out of my passions.
