When Femi, 9-years-old, spotted a gap in the market.
Thursdays are pretty special in the Osper office, as we’re blessed with Thursday Lunch Talks (also known as TLTs!). It’s usually Osper staff members speaking about things they find interesting, but sometimes we’ll have people with inspirational stories come in and do talks for us as well. Last week, mum-son duo Grace and Femi came in and spoke to us about their journey from tech novices to organisers of their own coding events.
Femi, 9-years-old, loves coding and all things Minecraft. He’s also got Tourette’s syndrome, and realised that there weren’t really any Tourette’s friendly coding places available in London. So what do you do when you spot a gap in the market? You fill it! Femi decided to start a campaign and managed to raise over £1200 to interactively teach young people about coding. A couple of weeks later, Femi and his mum held their first ever South London Raspberry Jam – a coding session especially friendly for young people with Tourette’s and Autism. The pair are now rolling out a six-week coding club and are planning a big Christmas Raspberry Jam on 12th December. Sounds intriguing? Have a look at Femi’s blog to read more.
For those of you wondering what on earth a Raspberry Jam is, apart from the delicious fruity pulp often mixed with bread and cheese for a scrumptious snack (yes, we’re weird like that), a ‘Jam’ is an event organised within the coding community to share knowledge and learn about what you can do with a Raspberry Pi. The Pi is a small computer you can use to learn programming through fun projects. During Femi’s Jam you could also learn through completing Minecraft projects, through robotics, web design, Kano coding and even physical computing, where a class was lead by Femi himself.
A big thank you to Femi and Grace for coming in to talk to the Osper family. Inspired by their story, we want to highlight to you some amazing opportunities if you are interested in learning more about coding. Coinciding with the launch of #Ospertunities, check out these great experiences with a tech twist:
Pi Wars, a robotics competition where user-created robots compete in various challenges
MozFest 2015, it’s £3 for under 18s which covers entry, two meals and refreshments
Hack Manchester, a two day coding competition for under 18s in Manchester
Reckon Raspberry Jams sounds like something for your family? Have a look here for jams near you.
