Jorge moved to the U.S. from Costa Rica just before high school. He quickly settled in, learned English, and ended up taking AP classes and graduating near the top of his class. But he couldn’t find any way that he could afford college.
Eventually Jorge got an entry level job with a local tech company, and in recent years his responsibilities have grown. Still, he did not have a role in software development, and he knew he had more to offer.
What Jorge really wanted to do was learn to code. And he took his first steps down that path with Code the Dream last year.
Now after being a star student, Jorge has become the first Code the Dream student to volunteer to take on a teaching role – providing one-on-one help to new students and even teaching entire lessons.
Even with all his other responsibilities, Jorge has made time each week to help other young people who were in the same position as he was just a few months earlier. And the students have been very appreciative. While he can’t fall back on years of experience, the fact that he started learning so recently means that he knows exactly what they’re going through – what’s easy and exciting, but more importantly what’s likely to be frustrating and confusing. That makes him a great teacher.
You’ve probably heard the old saying: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
But what if that guy who just learned to fish then volunteers to teach others how to fish? Soon enough a whole community is eating a little better, which is pretty awesome. Thanks Jorge!
Jorge teaching new students to code at HQ Raleigh.
And working through student questions one-on-one.
All photos are thanks to photographer Ricky Leung!