Austin was one of our first mentors at UC Berkeley – he started in January 2014 and has been working with 3 students learning to code for over a year! He is currently finishing his junior year at UC Berkeley and is very passionate about education. His excitement for all types of CS education has led him to work with both with younger kids having fun with Scratch and advanced students well beyond the basics of Python.
When did you start programming?
I took class in 4th grade that taught HTML basics, but didn’t truly delve into programming until senior year of high school when I taught myself programming with the help of Udacity.
What do you find rewarding about teaching kids how to program?
I love that I can help my students develop a skill they not only enjoy having, but also enjoy learning. It’s so much fun to be able to challenge such bright kids and see them work through those challenges.
What advice do you have to kids learning how to program?
Don’t be afraid of failure. Making mistakes is an incredibly important step along the way to success. Every time you fail at something, you eliminate one wrong approach and are that much closer to a correct solution.