My journey with Steel City Codes

Hey everyone! It’s been about four months since I started my journey with Steel City Codes, and wow, it’s been an incredible ride. Today, I want to dive a bit deeper into the process of starting my own chapter and everything that came with it. This journey has been nothing short of amazing, and I can't wait to share more with you all!

So, it all started with a couple of friends who suggested that I join Steel City Codes. They were already part of the organization and were super enthusiastic about it. Their excitement was contagious, and I knew I had to get involved. After learning more about the organization, I decided to create my own regional chapter. And guess what? You can actually see it listed as the latest chapter created—Carrollton! Yep, that's mine, and I'm the regional head, or as they officially call it, the regional director. Pretty cool, right?

The whole process of becoming a regional director was pretty straightforward. I applied, showed my interest, and demonstrated that I was capable of teaching the material and trustworthy. Since Steel City Codes is a volunteer organization, the application process wasn't super rigorous. It was more about showing your passion and commitment to the cause. Once I got accepted, the real challenge began—recruiting people!

Getting both teachers and students on board was definitely the hardest part. Right now, I haven't gotten any additional teachers yet. A couple of people have shown interest, but I need more students joining consistently to have multiple teachers. So, for now, it's just me leading the charge. But don't worry, I have a plan for the future. When I graduate, I'll be passing on my role to someone else, and I already have some potential candidates in mind.

Recruiting students was a whole adventure in itself. I had to talk to four different principals across four schools in my district, as well as a couple of engineering teachers, to get them on board and promote my chapter. With their help, I managed to gather about 20 students. Although not all of them join consistently, I usually get around 5 to 10 students each session. Over the summer, the numbers dropped a bit, but during the school year, I had a steady group of eager learners.

To attract more students, I created a Google form to make signing up easy and accessible. I decided to call my chapter "Code X" because Steel City Codes is a pretty long name, and I wanted something catchy and flashy to attract younger kids. The name worked like a charm, and I got students from elementary, middle, and even high schools to sign up.

With the students signed up, it was time to kickstart the classes. The national directors at Steel City Codes sent me the curriculum, and I started teaching Python to beginners. We met once a week for about an hour to two hours, depending on what we were working on. The classes were a mix of learning the basics of Python and working on fun coding projects. By the end of the semester, the students had created their own projects, which was super exciting to see!