Des Moines students, business leaders get ready for next week’s Tech Camp
PERRY BEEMAN Jul 14, 2016 | 7:53 pm
<1 min read time
0 wordsAll Latest News, Innovation and EntrepreneurshipMore than 70 Des Moines students will attend next week’s Tech Camp staged by nonprofit Tech Journey Inc. and a bunch of partners.
The idea is to give kids from disadvantaged backgrounds a chance to learn how to write code, create games and explore a variety of technical subjects. It is the brainchild of a team that included Tony Kioko, who is from Kenya but settled into Iowa after studying at Northwestern College in Orange City and the University of Northern Iowa. He leads a human-resources-related information technology team at Principal Financial Group Inc. and used to work for Meredith Corp.
Koiko said his mother did a lot of community work, and he has always been interested in giving back to the community. He came up with the idea for Tech Journey as a way to engage kids “who are talented but come from homes with limited resources.”
Currently, 72 students from the Des Moines district, which has a high proportion of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, participate in the program. Another 20 or so are added each year. The youngest are incoming eighth-graders. The first graduating class will be in 2018. The program is in its fourth year.
Tech Camp brings in volunteer instructors from all over town to teach sessions. Panel discussions will be added this year. Every year, there are demonstrations of gadgets.
“It blows your mind to watch these kids,” said Cindy Harmeyer Fisher, executive director of the EDGE educational program at the Greater Des Moines Partnership. “They just come alive, and there are robots on the floor, the students are coding games online.”
Fisher volunteers at the camp, which begins Monday at Central Campus.
Each student gets a donated computer to keep. They learn about robotics, basic programming and 3-D modeling, for example.
At the end of the four-day run, the students show parents and community members the projects they’ve worked on during the sessions.
Kioko said he hopes to expand the program to other districts in the future. “We’ve had great success. We’re making an impact.”
The program runs through donations from about 20 individuals and business partners.
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