Urban League of Essex County

Newark Students Learn How to Code and Think Big!

Barry Carter | The Star-Ledger | Email the author | Follow on Twitter

Keyon Vassell didn’t want to give up any of his Saturday, let alone eight hours of it. He’s a typical 13-year-old, who would rather relax and enjoy some downtime after a week of school.

But his mother, Kiyonna Thomas, says his eyes lit up when he brought home a flyer about a digital coding program from Newark’s North Star Academy Middle School, where he’s an eighth-grader.

The Urban League of Essex County was offering Newark Kids Code, a 10- week, free course on coding, and digital and computer technology that started in September at North Star Academy. It’s a field that speaks directly to young people who are fascinated with programming and how video games work.

Keyon admits to being a bit reluctant about wanting to spend so many Saturdays in a classroom, but the lure of science and math – and figuring out how characters move in a video game – was too strong.

“I was like, ‘Oh, Ma, do I have to go?'” said Keyon, who wants to create video games. “As I progressed, I was able to able to learn more and I actually enjoyed it more than I expected.”

Plus, it helps to have a buddy like Steve Sanchez, 13. He’s the one who applied a bit of friendly peer pressure on Keyon to sign up, when his classmate seemed apprehensive about attending the sessions. Science and math are Steve’s passions, too, at North Star. He’s so into the program that he’s been helping other students understand the material.

Getting up early every Saturday hasn’t been a problem for the duo, or the other 28 kids from North Star and Thirteenth Avenue School in Newark. As soon as the class begins at 9 a.m., the students get lost in a technological zone, their heads buried in their laptops.

They were there this past weekend, during an open house for the public to see what they’ve been learning. Idle conversation around them in the gymnasium didn’t break their concentration.

Hands went up when instructor Paul Rajah posed a question about the analog clock they were programming. If the young students were unsure about something, Rajah, a senior majoring in information technology at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, showed them what to do – with help from his eight NJIT classmates, who volunteer their time to teach the kids.

After eight weeks, the NJIT students are impressed. Rajah, who comes up with the lesson plans, said he sometimes finds himself running out of things to do for the kids.

“They just fly through it,” he said. “We’re learning, we’re programming, making decisions.”

They’ve done mazes, created a store, programmed autobiographical stories, a paddle and ball game, and more.

Emmanuel Dortu, an NJIT student, said he’s not sure what many of the teens will wind up doing with their lives, but he’s certain that computer science will stay with them.

“For those (who) really, really like it, (they) will take it forward and become programmers in the future.” he said.

The kids have been learning a coding program called Scratch, which helps young people to think and reason creatively. Developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Scratch is used by school-age youngsters in 150 countries and it is available in 40 languages.

It made its way to Newark after former city councilman Darrin Sharif saw a presentation about it – on his smartphone. Sharif, the kids code program director for the Urban League, said the agency funded the demonstration program with a $50,000 grant from the state Department of Community Affairs. Students were selected based on federal poverty guidelines.

“We have to prepare people for the pipeline,” said Sharif, speaking about future technology jobs. “We want our kids ready for them.”

Although the grant runs out next month, the Urban League plans to start a new session in January, as it seeks funding and a partnership with Newark Public Schools to expand the program to more kids.

Meanwhile, these kids are hooked and they understand the value of this experience. Even after the program is over, Sharif said the NJIT students will continue to meet with kids who want to strengthen their coding skills.

“I’m learning to think like a computer,” said Aze Williams, an eighth-grader at Thirteen Avenue School. “I’m learning to understand a deeper level of technology.”

Aze, 13, said she plans to use the technology in a career as a holistic neuroscientist, which she gladly explained is the use of plants to create natural medicine.

With that, she has lofty ambitions, too.

“I’m going to cure mental illness such as schizophrenia,” she said. “That’s what I’m going to dedicate my life to.”

If you are a parent, Kenneth Aboagye, 12, of North Star, highly recommends that your children get involved.

“This is amazing,” he said. “We’re making games, we’re making short stories, drawing our own characters and making them say stuff.”

And then there’s Nikolas Figueroa, 11, another North Star student. He sees himself as the next Steve Jobs. Most important, Nikolas said he’s “astonished” that so many people are willing to help Newark students pattern themselves after someone like the technology giant and entrepreneur.

That’s easy to understand, Nikolas. Newark students are visionaries, just like him.

View the story on nj.com.

Summer jobs are a Great Adventure for Newark students!

Barry Carter | The Star-Ledger | Email the author | Follow on Twitter

Newark students milling about in front of West Side High School were not waiting for summer classes to start this week.

It was a workday for them as they boarded a yellow school bus at 9:30 a.m. Over an hour later, they were clocking in at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson.

That’s a long way for a job, but 65 kids in khaki pants and blue polo-style shirts don’t mind. Listen to Nysira Welch, 17, and you can see why.

“This has taught me responsibility,” says Welch, an attendant at the “Kingda Ka” roller coaster.

“This has taught me independence…that I can make my own moves, make my own decisions,” she said as she politely let a parent know that his son was too small to ride.

The Urban League of Essex County has something to do with her thinking. West Side High School, which has three schools in the building, is located in the Fairmount section of Newark’s West Ward, an area the Urban League focuses on to improve the community through social and economic development. Part of that work is preparing city youth for employment and showing them what it means to have a job.

Andre Lawrence, 16, didn’t take the opportunity lightly.

“It changed me,” says Lawrence, who operates “El Diablo,” another roller coaster at Great Adventure. “I got to learn how to be a man.”

Rahman Karriem, chief operating officer at the Urban League, has to be smiling right now. And so is Andrea Jones, an administrator at one of the schools. This is what the Urban League hoped to achieve when it coordinated with the MCJ Amelior Foundation, Public Service Electric & Gas and Prudential to create a summer jobs program.

The students attended job readiness workshops, then they used those skills during interviews with Six Flags officials. They had resumes and presence. The boys wore shirts and ties and the girls put on blouses and skirts. Nervousness turned to excitement when they were hired in June to earn $8.38 to $9.88 an hour.

“We believe this is going to create a culture of success because these kids are going to be seen by other kids as leaders, getting jobs and experiences outside of Newark,” says Karriem, who wants to expand the program next year.

Until the social agency got involved, many of the kids say they got tired of rejection from retail stores and fast food restaurants. Six Flags gave them a chance when the Urban League called seeking employment for Newark’s young people.

“They were definitely an asset,” says Kaitlyn Turi, public relations supervisor for the theme park. “With 3,000 jobs to fill every season, we always need lots of folks to treat our guests to a nice day here throughout the summer.”

The students jumped at the chance to work, even if it meant getting home at 10 p.m., and sometimes 1 a.m. if an accident delayed their commute.

The job kept them busy and off the streets. It put money in their pockets and they learned something about themselves. Working with the public is not easy, but they remained patient, humble and positive.

Al-Samir Greene, 17, says he’s personable now and open to mingling with people he doesn’t know, while Anthony Pough, 16, figured out the importance of a budget after his first paycheck.

“I was broke,” he says.

Time management stuck with 16-year-olds Tyrell Moore and Stacy Tynvall. Moore says he wanted to grasp military time – the 24-hour clock the park uses for employees – so he changed the settings on his cellphone to practice.

2000 is quitting time.

“I wanted to learn it more,” he says. “That’s what they use down there.”

Tynvall was juggling school and work. She started out on weekends at the park because she was earning college credits during the week at Essex County College in Newark. When she finished class, Tynvall says she caught a NJ Transit bus from Newark to the amusement park, where she worked the cash register, cooked food and cleaned up at one of the eateries.

“After you work at Six Flags, you can work anywhere,” she says. “There’s so much to learn here and you see so many different things.”

There’s diversity in the workforce and visitors, who could be from Thailand or Jamaica.

And no day is the same.

There might be someone who faints from the heat or a pregnant woman having contractions. Animals show up when they feel like it, a sight that tickles Brianna Passmore, 16, when she comes across groundhogs and possums, gophers and geese.

“I’ll be working and they’ll just come out of nowhere,” says Passmore, a ride operator who wants to be a mechanical engineer.

The long day does end quietly. With sleep in their eyes, the students wake up when the bus drops them off at the school. A Newark police car is there to greet them with school officials. Some wait for rides, others walk home in groups.

There’s no time to waste.

Morning comes early.

View this story on nj.com.