Coding helped Jessica break out of her comfort zone

8th-grade coder Jessica (left), with her mentor Daisy, thinks back on two years with Bold Idea

“As a person, I’ve definitely grown. As a coder, I’ve been able to think outside the box a lot more often and see things from different perspectives. All because I've been given more perspectives to look at things. It just made my creative self a lot more strong.”

When Jessica was 11, she didn’t think much of coding. “I thought it was just punching numbers into a computer.”

“I didn’t really think it was something you could do in middle school. I thought it was more for adults. I didn’t think it had anything to do with kids,” she added.

Jessica filled her out-of-school time with sports and music. She was most comfortable with activities where she already excelled, like basketball and choir, and was hesitant to try anything new.

But after hearing about Bold Idea and that it was for middle school students, Jessica thought she’d give it a try. “I kinda had an idea of what I wanted to do in my future but I wanted to see if there was more I was good at or interested in - in case that sparked my interest,” she said.

Jessica has participated in Bold Idea’s weekly computer science program for two years now. With hands-on projects like a website on animal adoption and supportive mentors like Daisy Izaguirre, a student at UNT Dallas, Jessica’s confidence and interest in computer science grew.

“I really didn’t think I could make things like websites and quizzes. It made me realize that I’m capable of more than I’ve limited myself to. It’s opened a lot of new doors for me - for my future and what I want to do and study. I think just because of that I can grow on it and make a job out of it,” she said.

Her proudest moment was her first presentation at Bold Idea’s Demo Day event. “I was just proud of what we had accomplished. I didn’t think I could go up there and talk in front of that many people about what I had made, so I thought of it as a milestone for myself.”

Since then, talking in front of people has become a lot easier for Jessica and given her the confidence to explain what she created and how she did it.

She traces a lot of that confidence back to the support from her mentors, who she’s seen impacted as well. “They’re like your biggest fan. They don’t give you the answer right away. They give you time to figure it out. Maybe they don’t even know the answer, so you have to figure it out together. I think that’s just like the best part. You’re not just learning something, they’re learning something they can carry too.”

Now as an 8th grader, what does she think of computer science?

“I think that computer science has a lot of different meanings, like coding for the home, getting rid of a virus, or creating new technology. It’s whatever you want to make or interpret it. And it’s a lot about creativity and imagination, because if you think about it - now days we have the resources to make anything with technology and computer science. So, it’s definitely possible!” she said.

“Now that I’ve done coding, it’s opened up a lot of new things for me. I’ve also gotten into baking and teaching other kids coding. Because I tried coding, it made me want to do other things, because I realized how much I liked it.”