LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Teaching kids to bend computers and robots to their will to make their dreams come true is the goal of a summer coding camp in Las Vegas and Henderson.
Code Central leaders say kids just need to know how to manipulate the ones and zeroes in the computer to create just about anything their imagination can produce, and the instructors are trying to get more girls involved in the male dominated fields of tech and computing.
"When I was younger, I didn't really have anyone to help me with that," said Nadine Reyes, lead instructor at Code Central.
Co-founder Eric Mendelsohn said the girls make up 30% of the students in their summer camps, and there's no reason that shouldn't be closer to the gender ratio of instructors leading the way.
Half of the teachers at the camp are women inspiring girls to flex their creative muscles in the tech field.
"You really want to test your limits to see exactly how far you can push things," Reyes said. "And that's really exciting to show kids."
Reyes has spent years teaching girls like Savannah Spitz to dive into computing and robotics at Code Central.
"I think I've always been interested in computers," Spitz said.
Spitz began as a student at Code Central and decided to use that wealth of knowledge and hand it down to other kids by becoming an instructor before going to college.
"I'm just now passing the torch too the younger kids, helping them learn like they helped me learn," she said.
The last session of the Code Central Summer Camp begins July 26.
The in-person camps run Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and virtual sessions run from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. or 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
