All Kids Can Code in Jacksonville
William Jackson and Monica Timmons
Partnership between:
Jacksonville section of the
National Council of Negro Women
My Quest To Teach
LoveBuilt Life, LLC
The Jacksonville Section of NCNW and STEAM Chair Monica Timmons
envisioned All Kids Can Code Event, as a talking point for students that
would spark interest in technology.
The event was created to expose kids to the computer programming
coding language “Scratch,” discuss various types of technology
careers that kids can have access to..
Monica knew that in order to captivate the audience of young people
she would have to be transparent and meet the youth where they
were with positive word affirmations over themselves. The students
yelled, “I am somebody, I control my destiny, I am brilliant and my mind
is limitless.”
“My hope is that a technology movement of young people building code
and using creativity will erupt and cause the youth to put down guns
and pick up coding methodologies,” said Monica.
William Jackson, a 31 year educator hoped that the skills gained learning coding
and applied to Social Media responsibility and accountability can
change the mind-sets of youth, teens and young adults. “Creating a transformative mental shift away from self-hurt, self-denial to self-nourishment and self-empowerment,” said William.
The ability to understand languages is not just related to foreign languages;
Spanish, French, Igbo and the other diverse languages that can he heard in the
community of Jacksonville. There is another language that is located on digital
platforms that is the language of coding.
Coding can be the language to program robots, mechanical machines, cars,
airplanes and spaceships. It can be related to the language of the web also,
that Tim Berners-Lee created browsers to allow the Internet to be seen by human eyes through web browsers and not just viewed but with interaction and engagement.
A quote by Lee, “the Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future
is still so much bigger than the past.” William Jackson a STEAM advocate
encourages youth, teens and young adults to have a global perspective of the
world. To look beyond Jacksonville, Florida.
There are other similar languages CSS, Python and others that allow for the
connections of human and machine. The incorporation of AI – Artificial
Intelligence that blends human thinking to the decision making of machines.
Allowing machines to think like humans and make independent decisions.
The All Kids Can Code workshop for kids provided by the vision of Monica
Timmons, a skilled and proficient coder, developer, web creator. Monica an
active and engaged member of the historic National Council of Negro Women
https://ncnw.org/ Jacksonville Chapter.
The direction of life sustaining careers is directly related to STEM and STEAM.
Science Technology Engineering and Math or in some cases Mechanics.
The A represents the engagement of the Arts a very important element that
allows diverse areas of the brain to function in creativity and innovation.
Artist like Aida Correa infuse these elements to excite kids that are not into
sports or entertainment.
Youth, teens and young adults need to be engaged academically that can lead to professional careers.
Great appreciation to Gabriella White for sharing her story and drive toward her career dreams. Her involvement is an inspiration to the youth attending to see a young person they can look up to as a role model and even a mentor.
Opportunities like All Kids Can Code have the potential to open professional doors that lead to sitting at the tables of business, commerce, technology,
the Arts and education.
The economic opportunities for children of color and culture to develop skills necessary to start their journeys in new career opportunities and as entrepreneurs.
The NCNW in partnership with My Quest To Teach and LoveBuilt Life, LLC
will be providing workshops on June 15th and June 22nd in Jacksonville continuing to teach coding, web development and Internet safety and responsibility.
Thanks and appreciation goes out to Monica, the volunteers and support
of the NCNW and building the future leaders Jacksonville will need to become a transformative city for the future.
Businesses are embracing new technologies that manage data, are proactive to challenges that humans face and even encourage innovation.
The Arts is a very valuable component because of the infusion of visual elements that bring attention to nature. Special thanks to the Jacksonville Public Library and the use of its state of the art facilities. Always available to help and build a better future for youth, teens and young adults in Jacksonville.
NCNW Jacksonville Section under the leadership of:
Kruzshander Scott – Executive Director
Dr. Sabrina Edward, Ph.D. – President
Dr. Jevetta Stanford, Ph.D. – Vice President
Brandi Bennett – Secretary
Alfreda Denson-Butler – Interim Treasurer
William Jackson can be contacted at myquesttoteach@gmail.com
Monica Timmons can be contacted at jaxncnw1938@gmail.com
Aida Correa can be contacted at heisintheart@gmail.com
Jacksonville Section of NCNW website: https://jaxncnw.wordpress.com/
Left to Right: William Jackson, Alfreda Denson-Butler,
Sharita Neal, Gabriella White, Tasha Gaitlin,
Monica Timmons, Marcia Brown, and Marilynn Doucet.