Naama is a junior at UC Berkeley studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She excels with a wide range of Breakout Mentors students, from the youngest 8 year-olds doing Scratch drag-and-drop coding to a girl over the summer preparing to enter AP CS. Let’s get to know her!
When did you start to code?
I started to code when I took AP computer science my senior year of high school. I had little to no expectations of the class, but ended up loving the subject and decided to continue studying it at UC Berkeley.
Why is it important for kids to start coding when young?
One of my biggest regrets is not starting to code at a younger age. Just like learning a language, learning to code when you’re younger makes it easier to do so in the future, as the strong foundation is already built. When I first got to Berkeley, I found that my peers that started coding early on had an easier time grasping the new concepts. In addition, coding is relevant in almost every field today, so it is important to give kids exposure to it as no matter what they end up wanting to pursue in the future, knowing how to code is a valuable skill to have.
What advice do you have for kids learning how to code?
My advice for kids learning how to code is to stay consistent with practicing. When learning to code, just like with any other subject, going over something just once is not enough to fully grasp it. Without practice, what you learn will most likely be forgotten, so practicing is very important to building a strong foundation and being able to develop as a coder.