Breakout Mentors teaches computer programming to young Bay Area students, with a focus on making it fun. Our goal is to create a long-term interest in the subject and unlock the incredible benefits that will come over time. With this laser focus on young students, we can guarantee we are the best way for your student to learn and our results prove it.

We offer a variety of services, all centered around providing a project-based, personalized education for students ages 8 to 17.

1-on-1 Mentoring

Breakout Mentors provides personalized programming instruction for kids in the San Francisco Bay Area. We deliver the highest quality computer programming education by pairing each student to work 1-on-1 with an experienced mentor – the student is behind the mouse and keyboard at all times. The mentor is able to move at the student’s own pace, introducing new concepts as he or she is ready. It also allows room for the student’s individual creativity – the mentor helps bring the student’s ideas to life. The result is an engaged student that is having fun!

The mentor typically meets in the student’s home for an hour and a half session once or twice a week. Do you live outside of the Bay Area? Contact us to see how we can help.

Phone Consultation

We provide a free ten minute phone consultation about how to get your student involved in computer programming. Even if you aren’t interested or able to learn from Breakout Mentors, we’d like to point you in the right direction. Simply sign up for our email list and you’ll receive instructions on how to schedule your consultation.

Small Group Classes

We occasionally setup small classes for groups of friends that are interested in learning together. This setup isn’t as ideal as the 1-on-1 mentoring, but it will provide a fun introduction to programming, hopefully fostering a long-term interest. By the end of the class your student will be able to bring their own ideas to life, creating their own games.

Our most popular classes are Scratch programming for 5th and 6th graders or Java for students entering high school. If you have 3 to 8 students that are interested in learning together, we can help!

After-School Enrichment Programs

Breakout Mentors teaches several after-school enrichment programs at Bay Area schools. These are not usually open to outside students, but if you are interested in offering a class at your school, please contact us.

Project Mentoring

High school students with programming experience don’t have next steps in their education. Most schools are lucky to have one computer science course, leaving many students interested in learning more with nowhere to turn. Breakout Mentors works with these students on large projects that will expand their knowledge and result in a finished product. These projects can be written about on college applications or to land a summer internship.

Languages Offered

Our mentors are able to teach many different languages, whether you are interested in desktop, web, or mobile. For students 12 or younger we recommend starting with Scratch, which is a drag-and-drop programming language that teaches the important concepts and allows a beginner to make fun games almost immediately. After Scratch, and for our older students, we are language agnostic – there are pros and cons for each, but the important thing is that the student is having fun and learning. We can teach Java, Python, HTML-CSS-Javascript, Objective-C, and more!