By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
On a Saturday afternoon students from across Baltimore City Public Schools come together at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Their task for the day? Create a video game, complete with heroes, villains or whatever their young minds can conjure up.
Working in teams, the students use code to bring their virtual worlds to life. The annual meet, called the “Game Jam” is the brainchild of husband and wife team Gretchen and Michael LeGrand.
Back in 2013, the pair launched Code in the Schools, to introduce underserved Baltimore youth to computer programming. The couple pulled from their respective backgrounds in education, mental health and video game development experts to design a curriculum that would prepare Baltimore City Public School students for higher education and careers pathways in technology and circumvent the structural barriers that often keep Black and Brown students from pursuing tech professions.
Though Gretchen LeGrand stepped down from the organization in 2023, she has handed over control to co-executive directors Dianne Conley, Andrew Pham and Stephanie Alphee. Even with over a decade of educating students under its belt, Alphee says the organization’s work is only expanding.
“Video game design is still a very strong part of our curriculum as it’s the thing that a lot of students are interested in, but cybersecurity is something that we’re growing as the industry in our region grows,” said Alphee. “We’re also doing a lot of stuff around traditional coding, web development and app development, and we’re adding things like cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence.”
Code in the Schools initiatives include the Prodigy Program, an after-school computer science education course; CodeWorks, a summer experience in partnership with Baltimore City YouthWorks to enhance workplace-ready tech skills for residents aged 14 to 21; and Game Jam, a video game design competition.
Within the Prodigy Program, students choose from tracks, including game development, data science, 3D printing and cybersecurity. Many of the tracks prepare participants to pursue industry-level certifications in cyber, networking and information technology.
In October, Code in the Schools was awarded $200,000 from the Baltimore Digital Equity fund to advance its work in training and certifying the city’s young people in information technology.
“Through this leadership change, we’re trying to think about what our students need in this post-COVID educational landscape. Now that they have a really robust understanding of what coding and computer science is, we have career pathways for them,” said Alphee. “If they’re just looking to keep their technology skills sharp and use them to work at the port, drive a bus, become a doctor or be an IT professional, we want to make sure those pathways are accessible to them because they have the computer science skills to participate in our economy.”
At times, Baltimore City youth face negative perceptions, engendering low expectations about their achievements and capabilities. Alphee explained that if a person limits or relegates a student’s potential to stereotypes, they spur a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“The news media does a great job of telling Baltimore students who they are and what they’re capable of,” said Alphee. “We have to be louder than that. We have to drown out that noise because I have never seen a Baltimore student who wasn’t capable, amazing and could do all of the things they wanted to do despite their circumstances. I’ve only ever seen Baltimore as the most fertile ground for dreams to grow.”
Brandon Carter, a senior at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, became a part of Code in the Schools programming when he was in the seventh grade. His mom noticed his interest in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields and urged him to join the organization.
(Photo courtesy of Code in the Schools)
He said his affinity for the subjects sparked when he was given an interactive robot that introduced him to coding and artificial intelligence. Carter, a participant in the Prodigy Program, wanted to understand the technology and hardware that made the robot work.
Over the years, he said he’s been able to further his understanding of computer programming.
“I thought this was the only place where I would be able to learn coding,” said Carter. “This year, I started taking a class at my school that teaches Java [programming], and I’m actually finding that I can take some of the information I’m learning at my school and apply it here.”
Currently, he’s designing an explorative video game that challenges players to survive while being pushed around the ocean.
“I am actually going to try to continue doing game development as a side hobby because I want to get better at it,” said Carter. “I plan to get into some form of engineering in the future.”
25-year-old Faith Gibson’s first experience with Code in the Schools was two years ago as part of DataTrail, an education initiative spearheaded by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The paid, 14-week course introduces young adults, high school students and GED-graduates to data collection, analysis and interpretation.
After completing the program, Gibson decided she wanted to try another CodeWorks track, game development. It had been a life dream of hers to create her own video game, and she jumped at the opportunity to join the summer course.
“I had absolutely zero knowledge whatsoever about coding,” said Gibson. “The best experience I had was modifying games.”
Though a novice, Gibson’s instructor placed her in the advanced class. She spent time programming a game opponent and doing 3D modeling. Today, Gibson is a part of the Prodigy Program, and she was able to unveil her game, Tiger Express, during Code in the Schools’ showcase on Jan. 23.
In Tiger Express, the player’s wife has forgotten to bring her lunch to work. As traffic is heavy in the city, the player takes to the rooftops to deliver their wife’s lunch on time, dashing across roofs, hopping along balconies and climbing ladders.
Gibson said the sense of community, boost in self-confidence, focus on critical thinking and fun have kept her engaged with Code in the Schools. In spite of the headaches that debugging can cause, she believes the experience has helped her understand her potential.
“It’s very uplifting to realize that I’m more capable and smarter than I tend to think I am. If I’m met with a hard problem, I can overcome it in a reasonable amount of time,” said Gibson. “It’s been more of a journey of discovering myself. Along with building my game up to how I want it to be, I’m also building myself up to how I want to be.”
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBC Universal.
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