A 15-Year Old Shares Programming Advice

My name is Malik and I am a fifteen year old from Massachusetts. Today, I just wanted to share with you the story of my programming experience. My days as a programmer first began when I was twelve at a summer camp at Harvard which was known as the Digital Media Academy. At DMA, I learned lots of cool stuff about programming languages and game engines. Specifically, we worked with Python and a 2D game engine known as Pygame. I still continue to use Python and Pygame to this day. Both are very simple and easy to use and I strongly recommend them.

As I was saying, I learned a lot of cool stuff at DMA, but my journey did not end there. I eventually found myself at Startup Institute’s HS-Rampup. I worked with several instructors to solve a challenge that they presented and I really liked the challenge because it opened my eyes to the modern applications of programming. At the end of the workshop, I learned a lot of new programming concepts and I had tons of fun.

Before I go, I just wanted to say something to any of you who may be young programmers. Don’t be discouraged and don’t allow yourself to give up so easily. Programming is a field that is typically pursued by adults, but that isn’t enough of a reason to give up.

# prints Sincerely, Malik on separate lines
def goodbye(name):
     print(“Sincerely,”)
     print(“nt” + name)

goodbye(“Malik”)

Sincerely,

Malik

For more information about RampUp, a part-time web development program, click here.