Youngsters advance career drive with Chronixx-founded coding camp

Fifty students graduated on Friday after completing a month-long coding camp funded by reggae artiste Chronixx and aimed at further opening their eyes to the possibilities in the world of technology in spurring development.

Staged between July 4 and 29 at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Chronixx told The Gleaner that he was inspired to initiate the JamCoders Summer Camp to create a new system of thinkers in the country.

One 16-year-old participant told The Gleaner that the camp exposed them to advanced concepts, noting that he found it very useful as he intends to pursue a career in computer science.

“I had only a little experience in programming and coding and computer science, but after this camp, ... I really feel like I've learnt a lot in IT (information technology) and a lot in algorithms,” said the youngster, who had learnt of the camp through his IT teacher.

Helped shape personality

Another camper, also 16, said that having learnt of the camp through a family friend, she was happy to participate as it has helped to grow shape her personality and introduced her to new concepts and new friends.

The camp, she said, also helped her to think about what she wanted to pursue in the future.

It was for this reason that Chronixx developed the camp, which was part funded through his CHOR Foundation and supported by lecturers and teaching assistants from the Caribbean diaspora as well as United States citizens from institutions such as The UWI, Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley. The camp also received significant financial support from the D.E. Shaw Group and The Survival and Flourishing Fund.

“JamCoders was sparked by us wanting to be a part of an organic ecosystem of forward thinkers from the African diaspora; minds that are capable of using technology as a means to uncover the value of our more intrinsic qualities as a people,” said Chronixx.

He told The Gleaner that he wanted to expose the youth in a genuine sense to what is needed in the world and how technology could help to develop that.

“I feel like it's necessary for us to have a generation that are creators and pioneers of technology,” he said, adding that the camp was made free so it could be accessible to students from various backgrounds.

The 30 girls and 20 boys who participated in this inaugural staging of what is planned to be an annual programme were from 12 parishes.

“I feel that by making it free, we remove the barriers of who can and cannot afford it and we make it a thing that is about merit – students who have the essential qualities to be here, those are the students we want to be here, not people who have any form of social or class quality,” said Chronixx.

As the island moves into the Emancipation and Independence celebrations, the singer said: “ ... I'm not really into semantics and Independence and Emancipation. I don't celebrate those things because I feel like those are mere words without actual, legal, and scientific foundation. A people who don't have scientific freedom and the freedom to research and to develop themselves and the freedom to even know what freedom is.

“I don't really understand any kind of freedom that is awarded or that is given. To be honest, I celebrate the resilience of the Jamaican people and I don't really like to call us Jamaican people 'cause we're bigger than that. We're people. We're human beings. I celebrate the resilience of us traversing those centuries on top of centuries of constant down pressure. The one positive we can take from that is that our resilience was fortified and magnified.”

sonae.rose@gleanerjm.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story had said that the JamCoders camp was fully funded by Chronixx's foundation. While Chronixx was the conceptualiser and founding donor, fundraising efforts continued with significant financial backing also coming from the D.E. Shaw Group and The Survival and Flourishing Fund. We regret the error.