It’s not unusual for CodeWizardsHQ students to be exceptional scholars. They not only excel in school but are also devoted to extracurricular activities like coding. Zachary, a CodeWizardsHQ high school student, is no exception and his passion for coding and one other very unique sport, make him an interesting student to meet and spotlight.
From Gaming to Computer Science
Like many students, Zachary’s interest in learning to code started with a passion for video games. He wanted to know more about how they work and learn to make his own games.
“I was playing a lot of video games and I wanted to make my own. Modding Minecraft started my interest to learn to code and also sparked an interest to learn Python. Once I started learning more about coding, I could understand how some other things work, like websites. Those seem fun now because I know HTML/CSS.”
His mom saw coding as a learning opportunity that she wanted to encourage.
“Learning to code was driven by Zachary when he was about ten. You could tell that he had a strong desire and interest in coding and so I wanted to keep building on top of that.”
Zachary tried a variety of learn-on-your-own opportunities but found that the support just wasn’t there. His mom found CodeWizardsHQ and decided to give it a try. She was drawn to CodeWizardsHQ by the opportunity to have the in and out-of-class support that her son was missing elsewhere. As a homeschooling parent, she liked CodeWizardsHQ’s Homeschool Program and its unique Internship Program for graduates. She continues to be happy with her choice, especially the assistance on how to choose classes with no guessing about what course comes next.
“The teachers have been great and sit with students way beyond their class time, which is nice. Zachary gets responses to questions within five minutes. If parents are like me and they need a lot of guidance, then this is the program for them because CodeWizardsHQ has auto-enrollment for classes. With CodeWizardsHQ’s three-year program, you can be confident in the fact that students get a full and complete course and it’s covering everything.”
Zachary’s Coding Journey
Zachary is currently enrolled in a Responsive Web Development course. He enjoys all of his projects, but several are more memorable.
“One of them that does stick out to me is an HTML project. It was teaching us how to put videos onto the screen…and that let me figure out how YouTube works a little bit, like how it has tons of videos and how I can make a website that looks like it…It allows me to get insight into other programs and websites. I also like my portfolio because I can browse my projects easily. It was also my first solo project in an HTML course.”
His favorite languages center around his future career goals of game or website creation.
“I’ve enjoyed Python for the user interface and how you can interact with it and have certain functions and things happen. I also like HTML for the graphics and I want to learn how to combine those to make video games so you can have the user interact with graphics.”
His dedication to coding has not gone unnoticed by his CodeWizardsHQ instructor, Holly.
“Zachary is a deep thinker and his ability to absorb the material we’re learning is out of this world. He’s now able to create our class projects from scratch on his own by just showing him the final project. He asks forward-thinking questions, and his projects always push the envelope. His questions allow us to discuss topics generally not covered in the material.”
Hobbies and Interests
