GoodHeart | Young Scholars Foundation gets boost for coding, robotics initiatives

Founder of the Young Scholars Foundation, Shanese Watson, believes that digital literacy is the best investment for Jamaica to make to achieve its Vision 2030 objectives. As a result, she has used various projects through the Young Scholars Foundation to address leadership, service and now, recently, technology.

In 2022, she formed the Tech Bloc Programme to educate and train students at the primary and high school levels in various digital skills. The programme comprises an annual coding and robotics summer boot camp and coding clubs being established at select primary and secondary schools across Jamaica, including Morant Bay High School in St Thomas and St Aloysius Primary School in Kingston.

“We decided that with the lack of resources in technology within the parish of St Thomas, a tech grant would be beneficial for the coders and inspire digital transformation. The tech grant of $500,000 [sourced from donor pledges] will assist with educational activities. St Aloysius Primary has been one of the main institutions that has supported our various leadership programmes and volunteer activities from the initial stages of our foundation launch. We saw our new tech programme as a great avenue to continue with the educational development of the students,” Watson said.

She indicated that her vision is to see the funds being allocated to coding and robotics projects at the school.

The coding and robotics boot camp provides free coding classes for primary and high school students in the summer. Coding classes, along with online resources, are divided into juniors, for students ages 8-13 and seniors for students ages 14-19. The students are taught basic and advanced coding techniques. Tutors are local and international university students and graduates skilled in computer science and programming.

Javed Manning, club president at Morant Bay High School, was very excited about the plans to allocate funding for the club.

“I have always wanted to use technology as a major educational tool and I believe that with the help of the Young Scholars Foundation, we will put our parish and school in a positive light regarding digital literacy,” she said.

Watson indicated that for this year, there is also an ongoing tablet-donation drive in partnership with a few South Korean postgraduate student bodies who have pledged to be donors and collaborate with her programme. The donors’ aim is to assist students in achieving expert knowledge in coding and provide technological resources to drive innovative ideas in Jamaica.

Additionally, her connection to South Korea has been a rewarding experience having completed her master’s in trade and finance in that country through the Korean Government Scholarship Programme.

She said this has helped her to continue her community initiative throughout the years which earned her a Prime Minister’s Youth Award in 2019 for National Building.

“Our mission at Young Scholars Foundation is to work with both private and public sector entities in building a solid future for students in information and communications technology (ICT). The tablets were distributed to students who have Internet connection, but are currently without tablets for the new 2023/24 academic year,” Watson said.

“We also partnered with the Ministry of Education and Youth in collaboration with the Ministry of National Security’s Citizen Security Secretariat Kids in Tech forum where tablets were distributed to students,” she added.

The Young Scholars Foundation has also assisted students with international scholarships and awarded students for their contribution in academics, co-curricular activities, and service to community. For this year’s programme plan, the foundation has opened applications for their Teen Success Club and leadership training.

“We have designed various programmes which includes volunteerism, leadership and entrepreneurship which can be accessed virtually. A Future for Tech showcase and forum for all students is also on the way,” she added.

In partnership with the Ministry of National Security Citizen Security Secretariat, a virtual coding and robotics summer camp is set to begin on July 26 and is free for secondary and primary school students ages 8-19.

The foundation has also created its own science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workbook that is useful to students and adults in learning the basics about STEM and tools in creating coding projects and understanding the use of robotics during the boot camp.

Applications for the Young Scholars Foundation Teens in Tech Awards will be officially opened in August and the award ceremony is slated for November 2023.

To learn more about the Young Scholars Foundation, visit @youngscholarsinspire on social media or youngscholarsinitiative.wordpress.com or email youngscholarsinc21@gmail.com.