Ramblewood’s Enzo Quarteiro, Marcos Velasco, Teacher Susan Mejia and Mailia
Thompson. {David Volz}
Marcos Velasco loves working with computers and has mastered several codes.
As a student at Ramblewood Middle School in Coral Springs, he has been learning to write advanced HTML and CSS code with Susan Mejia, a digital technology teacher.
“I am creating websites, and now a person is paying me to build one, said the seventh-grader from Coral Springs.
For the past seven years, Mejia has worked to build a computer coding program at Ramblewood. Soon, she will take advanced coding students on a field trip to Xai Robotics in Coral Springs, where they will learn directly from experienced engineers. She has also taken students to Hotwire Communications and invited Google engineers to speak to her students.
Mejia’s primary goal is to prepare students to pass certification exams in the computer industry, enabling them to qualify for coding jobs. The students are currently taking tests to demonstrate their skills in HTML, CSS, Python, and other programming languages. They can continue to pursue industry certification while in high school, and if they earn certification in three programming languages, they will be considered qualified for paid programming positions or eligible for college scholarships, according to her.
“I have students who are very hardworking and dedicated, and they can earn money with their coding skills,” she said.
Students see the opportunities in technology. Enzo Quarteiro, a seventh-grader from Coral Springs, said he enjoys learning to write HTML code and wants to build websites.
Mailia Thompson, an eighth-grader from Coral Springs and a member of Girls Who Code, said, “I have worked to learn code, and if I work hard in class, I can be successful. “
Girls Who Code is a club that Mejia has developed, creating a comfortable environment for girls to learn about coding. She also sponsors the e-sports program, where students compete with other schools in computer games.
Principal Andrew Kirk is pleased with the coding program and said many students love it because they can see the real-world benefit of learning to write code.
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