Monroe Dad inspires students to learn coding

After becoming concerned over the lack of computer science curriculum being taught to young students, one Monroe School District parent decided to see what he could do to make a difference.

Through his company, Ucodemy, software engineer and entrepreneur Jason Rukman has been working with Hidden River Middle School teacher and librarian Shauna Yusko to help sixth-grade students learn the basics of coding.

In addition to providing young students with an engaging and hands-on way to learn coding, Rukman's web-based K-12 coding academy provides teachers with the resources necessary to implement the curriculum themselves.

Rukman's daughter attends Hidden River, which is why he chose to start there. Yusko, who is in her first year with the Monroe School District, was eager to collaborate with Rukman after learning about Ucodemy. So far, students have responded favorably to the coding classes, which are taught in the school library every other Friday.

Watching girls get just as excited about computer programming as boys has been particularly rewarding to Yusko.

"That's been really fantastic to see,GÇ¥ Yusko said. "We also have a lot of kids where English isn't their first language ' and they've been able to be successful at [programming].GÇ¥

Students are able to work at their own pace, get extra help when they need it and, time permitting, are given the opportunity to present what they've accomplished to their peers at the end of the class.

Sharing a passion for technology

Growing up on a cattle farm in Australia might not seem like the most likely place to develop a knack for technology, but Rukman began experimenting with computer programming when he was just 13 years old. He moved to the United States after college, after being recruited to the area by Apple. In 2005, Rukman founded his own technology-based company called Suhari, which he later sold.

He has more than 20 years of professional experience as a software engineer.

Ucodemy, his most recent endeavor, was born out of a desire to advocate for computer programming as a viable career opportunity and promote computer science as a valuable educational platform. When he was developing the Ucodemy academy, it was important to Rukman to take things a few steps further than simply facilitating an after-school coding club. He wanted to empower teachers so that coding instruction could be integrated smoothly into the educational environment.

"That's part of what I'm working on is actually bringing it to the teachers. Eventually, Shauna will be able to run some of these classes without me,GÇ¥ Rukman said. "And I'll have engineers sitting remotely that can actually support and answer questions and stuff like that.GÇ¥

Rukman offers three different membership opportunities through Ucodemy, so that a school can choose the curriculum that most effectively accommodates the needs of its students. Each membership offers things like: access to coding courses, web-coaching, hosted coding instructionals, lesson plans, projects, email support and private course forums.

"I think that's really fantastic and makes it very accessible to schools like ours that don't have a technology department or a technology teacher,GÇ¥ Yusko said.

Rukman pointed out that according to organizations like Code.org ' a non-profit organization dedicated to making computer science more available in schools ' a huge disparity exists between the number of computer science jobs and the number of computer science students.-á Code.org considers computer science to be America's untapped opportunity, and predicts that by 2020, there will be 1 million more jobs in computer science than there are students.

Rukman is hoping that he can alter that statistic by teaching kids the basics and sparking their interest so that they're more inclined to enroll in computer science classes when they get to college.

"That's why I'm here,GÇ¥ Rukman said, "to get them enrolling.GÇ¥

For more information about Ucodemy, visit www.ucodemy.com, www.facebook.com/ucodemy or email hello@ucodemy.com.