Hilary is a senior at Stanford who joined as a mentor over two and a half years ago. Impressively, she has kept with one young girl the whole time – it is truly incredible how much progress a student can make with consistent effort!
Why is it important for kids to start coding when young?
As someone who also loves studying humanities, it’s been amazing realizing how important computer science is not just as a field in itself, but also as a tool to help research in so many other disciplines. In general, coding not just advances your critical thinking, but also pulls in other skills such as design and user experience. Using coding as a way to nurture these skills in kids from a young age is a great way to advance their learning.
What do you find rewarding about teaching kids how to code?
I love teaching kids to code because they’re always full of new and creative ideas that I never would’ve thought of. My favorite moment is when we finish a project, and they are so excited to show their parents and friends what they built with code.
What advice do you have for kids learning how to code?
My advice for kids that are learning how to code is to not give up! Finding bugs and writing code is difficult, even for an old college senior like me. But the more work you put into your program, the more rewarding it’ll feel at the end when you have an amazing product.