Editor’s note: It’s the first day of Computer Science Education Week—an annual event for organizations and educators to encourage students to try computer science—and we’ve got a special guest author to mark the occasion. Chance the Rapper is joining us to celebrate student coders in Chicago.
Today is a perfect example of why we started SocialWorks almost four years ago—to empower Chicago youth with art and education.
In 2017, with CS4All, Scratch, and a little help from Google, we told hundreds of kids from the South Side of Chicago they could do anything with code. Since then, we’ve been busy with teacher training, hosting family creative coding nights, and getting the whole community excited about what’s possible with code.
Now the kids are coding. Seven elementary schools spent a bunch of time creating a game and drawing themselves as superheroes—that can fly! That can teleport! That collect hearts. All using code.
A few weeks ago, I saw their incredible work and am so proud of them that I decided their projects should be seen by the entire world …
So today, the first day of Computer Science Education Week, I present you with—SuperMe, the official video game for “I Love You So Much” (because anyone can make a music video).
Watch “SuperMe,” an official video game from students in Chicago
I’m also excited to announce that we’re going to continue this work with even more students next year with an additional $250,000 Google.org grant to support SocialWorks and CS4All.
A huge thank you to everyone involved—we’re giving the youth in Chicago what they really deserve: more opportunity.
Feeling inspired? Let a teacher in your life know they can help kids code their own heroes in their classroom for CSEdWeek. Time to get coding, y’all.
