Behind every video game, website and online news site, thousands of lines of code construct every minute detail. The ability to traverse the landscape of code is one that often ignites a passion of in many, but only so many have the resources to pursue such a passion.
Coding club, founded by Rohan Dasanoor and Eddie Liu, serves as a resource for students who are interested in coding to further explore their passion. It provides a space for creativity and learning for more experienced seniors, while allowing those seniors to foster the next generation of coders.
Rohan Dasanoor, a junior with aspirations of becoming a coder, created coding club to turn it from an unofficial activity, to the community it is today.
“At first, coding club was created as a minutemen time activity that people could join, so it wasn’t official for the first year, but then after that, we found an advisor and we made the club official and more people started coming to it,” Dasanoor said.
Dasanoor’s desire to make coding club official was not just because of its title, but also the effect it had on scheduling freedom and the potential time allocated toward each meeting.
“Minutemen time was something that happened every other Wednesday, and it’s just a block of 25 minutes where coding club would be held, but since there were many other activities that were also minutemen time activities, there weren’t as many people in minutemen time coding club as in the after school coding club that happened a year after,” Dasanoor said.
The impacts of learning how to code can go beyond just highschool. Coding can be used in so many different ways and in many different industries. Dasanoor explained how coding club sets people up for these opportunities.
“Some impacts that I saw were obviously creating more opportunities for students who wanted to learn more about coding, but didn’t have the opportunity to do so under our school, so making coding club just allowed more students to learn more about coding… and maybe encourage people to look more into coding as a potential college major,” Dasanoor said.
Liu explained that the need to make the coding club official extended further than just the benefits associated with it, but also from the lack of opportunity at Revere.
“At our school there isn’t even a computer science class… so there is really nothing computer coding oriented at Revere so we thought we should make something like that,” Liu said.
Liu loves to teach coding, but it is not just for the fun of it, but also because of the pride he takes in his work.
“For me, it’s just being able to be proud that I’m teaching and doing all these things,” Liu said.
The executive code board is a group of students handpicked by the president, who truly have shown a love of coding and a commitment to the craft. Tarun Venkatesh, a junior member on the executive coding board, has learned many useful skills by joining and going to coding club.
“I’ve learned lots of things. I’ve learned how to make small projects and just really gotten the basics of coding down, and really Rohan and Eddie both do a great job on just teaching everybody the basics, so we can start getting into complex stuff,” Venkatesh said.
The two students’ passion for coding has created a place that gives opportunities to students who may not otherwise have an outlet. Through coding club, students will be able to establish a strong base of coding knowledge to reach new heights in highschool, college and beyond.
