Growing the Voices of Our Future
The Westside Gazette Newspaper is honored to feature these editorial contributions made by local students.
By Samara Rawls
This past week I had the great opportunity to take a coding class for a day. I haven’t tried coding before so this was my first real experience. The class, Coding with Color, was hosted by 100 Black Men of Jacksonville, Inc. The Zoom session started at 9 a.m. and ended at 2 p.m., and we began by learning more about the leader of the program and how it was started. Next, we reviewed the basics of coding, such as why we need coding in our everyday lives, and why there are so many different types of codes.
After we finish the basics, we went on to more complicated coding lessons such as how to select certain data from a data chart. We worked on the data chart for most of the day because it was the most challenging. After we finish the data charts, we all discussed what we had learned.
I feel like this coding class was outstanding because I have not tried coding before, and this gave me the opportunity to explore the field. Another reason why I really enjoyed this program was because we had a Black female to speak. There are not many Black women in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (S.T.E.M.) field so it inspired me when I saw someone that looked like me. I would highly recommend everyone to try a coding class be-cause you never know if you will like it or not. I never knew I could be interested in coding but now since I’ve had the opportunity to explain it, it was interesting, and I would love to learn more!
