A group of changemakers!

Vasu is the Club Programme Coordinator for India with the Raspberry Pi Foundation. In this blog, Vasu shares how a group of dedicated college students in Bengaluru took the initiative to start several Dojos in their community.

 

I met Mr. Jagadeesh, the placement head at APS College of Engineering in Bengaluru, India, at an event in 2019. Right from the beginning, Mr. Jagadeesh showed great enthusiasm and was very keen to get his students involved in CoderDojo. 

A head start on getting students involved

It was after a few calls that we decided to meet at the college. To my astonishment, he had already spoken to the students and selected those who would be interested in being part of this global movement. Here I thought I was going to sit in an office all day talking to the management of the college and convince them of the idea of digital making. 

Mr. Jagadeesh stressed the importance of ownership in any intervention to his students: “It is of utmost importance that the people who carry out these activities need to own it and not do it because the college authorities are asking them to. These children have come here because they want to know more and they want to do more for their society despite being in the middle of their examinations.” Mr. Jagadeesh’s  approach is the foundation of any successful sustainable initiative. 

Leading by example

The APS College of Engineering registered 10 Dojos and started the journey with us. There are 10 young changemakers who have been instrumental in shaping this journey. Kaushik, who was also nominated as the group leader, mentions, “It is not very easy to convince the school authorities to send students to us. My friends and I are interested in taking this forward to not only the nearby communities but also spread awareness amongst our juniors as well so that this collaboration never ends.”

 

Kaushik starting with the basics of computing with his Ninjas

Flexible and unique learning

Gautham, another champion shared his experience of onboarding and recruiting Ninjas for his Dojo, “It was an amazing experience. One of the things that we carefully decided for our Dojo was to tell the schools that each kid learns to code in their own unique way, just like each tree grows with a different shape and size (and sometimes color!). So our way will be flexible, and will be customized around individual students, coaching kids with the style and content that we feel works best for each situation.”

Gautham conducting his first CoderDojo session

150 Ninjas and counting!

Kaushik, Gautham, Gowrav, Meghana, and Praveen are one among the many of this group of college students who took responsibility for shaping the way their community learns. Despite the challenges of distance and other logistics, these students have over 150+ Ninjas and have conducted 10 sessions so far! 

The team at APS with a group of government school children in Bengaluru

We wish them all the best in this inspiring journey! 

Start your CoderDojo journey

Inspired by APS’s story? Use your time at home to get in touch with Vasu and learn what offerings are available! 

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