AMHERST, N.Y. (WKBW) — Bringing the knowledge of coding to Transit Road in Amherst, Sanchayita and Umesh Shah are opening the Coder School this weekend.
The Silicon Valley start-up has 30 schools around the country teaching children 7-18 years old how to computer code to make websites, video games and other software programming. The Shah's wanted to bring the school to their hometown of Buffalo to teach kids a new skill.
"What we are trying to do here is teach kids the language of the future," Umesh said.
The Shah's had the motivation to open the tech school a year ago when their 12-year-old daughter Vidya wanted to learn how to code. Umesh has worked in coding all his life and says he thought franchising a Coder School in Buffalo would be a passion project for him and his wife, but to also bring the knowledge of technology to the community.
"Technology is evolving you cannot really get away from coding," Umesh added. "No matter which field you choose you need that basic literacy of how to write a few lines of code."
The Shahs say they want the coding classes to not be like kids learning in school, but more fun where kids will learn from tech coaches while completing a project. The coaches are masters students at the surrounding colleges nearby and other tech professionals.
"A lot of kids are really into video games like Minecraft as an example," Umesh said. "We have programs where you can use the Minecraft characters and have a lot of coding that goes behind the scenes to make it move and make all the decisions to make it move."
The Shahs say they want these classes to be extra circular activities for kids, where they can go to a sports practice one day and come to coding class another. It's not just about expanding the student's knowledge of technology, but also to teach them other life lessons.
"We are trying to teach from the code is logical thinking, and that is something you will carry wherever you go," Sanchayita said.
The Shahs add they are passionate about teaching kids coding to help them in their future careers and want to also empower more women to pursue a career in technology to help bridge the gender gap in the field.
"For every 5 men there is one woman in the room... we really want to do something about it at a very small level in our capacity," Umesh said.
The open house for the Coder School is this Saturday from 1-3pm where parents and children can come and check out the school and try coding for themselves.
