At 10 years old, a Filipina girl has already learned coding to become the youngest programmer in the Philippines – but she didn’t just stop at learning how to program, she also started her own company to teach others how to code! Isn’t that amazing?
Meet Isabel Sieh of Antipolo City, the owner of Girls Will Code, a company that encourages girls to learn about coding. The company also aims to encourage schools to include basic programming in their respective curriculums because Isabel believes that the younger someone learns how to code, the better it would be for him/her to learn more and become fluent.
“It’s the same thing as language. As you learn early, you get really fluent,” she said.
But how did she even learn how to code?
You will be amazed to know that she just learned to code using online materials from the Code Academy! It was a teacher who noticed how she loved math so much and suggested that she try coding.
She loved learning the basics of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and JavaScript through online classes so much that she excelled in them and would soon master the two that her parents had to hire tutors so she could learn more than the lessons available online.
By learning from the internet and from other people, she made a realization that kids could learn more if they are in a community of learners and teachers. So, she started Girls Will Code.
With the company, Isabel transformed from being a student – she became the teacher! She is now 13 years old and has taught a lot of kids how to code, thanks to Scratch Jr. The program aims to simply coding for kids as young as 5 to 7 years old.
The kids get to have fun designing their own games and interactive games. This becomes their stepping stone to learning coding.
Isabel Sieh just proved to the world that age should never be a hindrance in learning anything new – and while that often applies to older people, she showed us that the adage is applicable to young ones, too!