Arya is a junior at University of Texas studying Computer Science with a minor in Business. He has an impressive list of coding achievements outside the classroom, including winning a hackathon and software development internships with Verizon and Dell. He excels at taking Breakout Mentors students from beginner to intermediate level projects while making it fun.
When did you start to code?
I started learning to code in 3rd grade on MIT Scratch, which taught me the linear progression of programs and got me excited about the field. I continued in middle school with Javascript and HTML/CSS, and in high school, I learned Java. Here at UT Austin I now do Java, Python, C, and specifically C++ for competitive programming.
Why is it important for kids to start coding when young?
Computer science and coding have become such a dominant field in every part of the industry; it is only right to treat it as a core subject in today’s world. Any field will demand and look for employees who can code as well. Kids who start coding at a young age are at an advantage and are better prepared for today’s economy.
What advice do you have for kids learning how to code?
Remember that code always runs the same! In English class or History class — even in science experiments — there is room for error. There is a chance that someone has a different result or opinion. In coding, that is not the case. The computer will always treat the same code in the same way. Use this to your advantage. When you are stuck on a program, you can break it down into its individual components, and even further from there if you want. You can find the isolated problems in your code just by running portions at a time since they will always function the same!