Funding · Intent signed
$30K from Big Red Education
Big Red Education has signed an intent to fund YCI with $30,000 — support that will expand chapters, curriculum, and hackathon programming.
← Back to Leadership & Service
Open on YouTube
Founder & President2023 – Present
Young Coders Initiative (YCI)
Founder and President of YCI, a student-run nonprofit that has brought computer science education to 10,000+ students — including the YCI Hackathon, the SAMx TED/Talk, and a new Global Ambassadors Program.
I founded the Young Coders Initiative to close a gap I kept running into: plenty of students are interested in computer science, but access to real instruction is uneven and often depends on where you happen to go to school.
YCI now runs as a chapter-based nonprofit across multiple countries, with 10,000+ students reached, 4,000+ hours of instruction delivered, and 100+ volunteers teaching. As President I set the curriculum direction, onboard and support new chapter leads, and run the programs and hackathons that keep members building rather than just attending.
Highlights
- Founded and led the organization since 2023
- 10,000+ students reached across multiple countries
- Curriculum, chapter onboarding, and program design
Impact to date
10,000+
Students reached
4,000+
Hours of instruction
100+
Volunteer instructors
$30K
Intended funding from Big Red Education
What's Next
Building YCI's next chapter
Organizer2026
YCI Hackathon 2026
I organized and hosted the 2026 Young Coders Initiative Hackathon, an event built to give students a first real experience of shipping something under a deadline.
Running it meant handling the whole pipeline — venue and scheduling, mentor recruitment, the judging rubric, and support for teams who had never written code before the day started.
- Led end-to-end planning, logistics, and day-of operations
- Recruited mentors and judges for participating teams
- Designed the event for beginners as well as experienced students
Speaker2026
2026 SAMx TED/Talk Presentation
Selected to speak at the 2026 SAMx conference, I presented a TED-style talk on how students can build durable nonprofit engagement rather than one-off volunteering.
The talk traced the growth of the Young Coders Initiative from a single classroom into chapters running in multiple countries, and made the case that educational accessibility improves fastest when students themselves design the programs.
- Invited speaker at the 2026 SAMx conference
- Focused on nonprofit engagement and educational accessibility
- Presented the Young Coders Initiative model to a live audience