Amir Camper – Amir Camper is a computer science marjor at Beloit College
Code can be an amazing tool to express the imagination. I first discovered my passion for code by playing a video game. My introduction to code was from a hand-held device called a Nintendo 3ds. It was through this game that I discovered the world of coding and developed a love for gaming. There was a programming game in the system called Smile Basic that allowed me to create my own game using their code. I was instantly hooked. I wanted to learn all about coding. I was so motivated that I watched coding tutorials, researched it online, and discovered other coding languages. After I made my first game on the system I wanted to expand my knowledge by learning different code languages. Though I was ready to learn, I had some obstacles. I didn’t have a computer and had limited access to the internet. Because of these obstacles, I couldn’t learn as fast as I wanted to. While this slowed my learning process, it didn’t deter me.
I was always an active person, but I was also reserved and socially awkward. When I went to high school I vowed to become more social. I joined the cross-country team. I also joined the wrestling team and won the city championship my freshmen year. Playing sports boosted my confidence. I became more social and began making friends. I also had a love for gaming. I felt other students who were also reserved and less athletic needed an opportunity to be social and make friends too. I petitioned the school to create a gaming club as an after-school program. I met with the principal and explained my vision for the club and its purpose. I found a teacher to sponsor the club who loved gaming as well and the club took off. The gaming club is now in its fourth year. Our members range from 9th to 12th grade and are a mixture of academic and athletic students. So, people who wouldn’t normally meet during a school day were becoming friends because of their shared interest in gaming.
Simeon Career Academy didn’t offer any coding classes for the students my freshman year. In my sophomore year of high school, I met a teacher who had a master’s degree in computer science: she was the web design teacher, and she agreed to teach me HTML5 and CSS for an hour every Wednesday after school. My junior year I received a laptop and I wasted no time to practice coding. The more I coded, the more I noticed improvements in my critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Who would have thought a video game would have such a major effect on my life? It has inspired my future career path as a coder. I want to continue to learn and get my degree in computer science. I want to pursue a career as a game developer. I want to teach kids and create opportunities for them that I didn’t have at a young age. There shouldn’t be barriers for students who want to learn.
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