Plano Students Celebrated National Engineering Week with App Debut at Capital One

PLANO, Texas - March 8, 2016 - PRLog -- Capital One hosted 25 middle school and high school students recently at its Plano campus to celebrate and showcase apps created during the Capital One Coders program, a 10-week course that teaches students software engineering and how to develop apps for mobile devices while growing computational thinking skills.

This marked the third year Capital One has hosted the Capital One Coders program for local students on its Plano campus.

“It’s more important than ever for our youth to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to solve tough problems, gather and evaluate evidence and make sense of information. These are the types of skills that students learn by studying STEM,” said Mark Cauwels, vice president of Financial Services Data and Shared Technology at Capital One. “The Capital One Coders curriculum was created to help local students understand and pursue their interests in STEM fields during a critical period in their education.”

During the program, which is part of an ongoing series at Capital One, students were placed in eight groups with a Capital One associate and given the task to develop a new app. Ideas ranged from games like Asteroid Smash and Impulse Racer to organizational devices. Students had the opportunity to debut the apps to parents, grandparents and administrators while competing for “Most Creative,” “Most User-Friendly,” and “Overall Best App,” based on votes from their peers. To celebrate their hard work and to promote a continued maturity of their digital skills, each participant was rewarded with a new laptop. The tablets used throughout the program were donated to local schools.

Jaden Banze, an 8th grader at Bowman Middle School said, “The coding experience has meant a lot to me. I love coding. I love the atmosphere and getting be around my friends. It’s just really fun!” His team won “Best Overall App” for the creation of “Tree,” a six-in-one app with games and organizational components.

Middle school student Rylee Woodward shared similar enthusiasm. “I love coding. I love the freedom to make mistakes, be creative and make anything I want.” Her team created the Star Wars inspired game, Asteroid Blaster. After landing on the theme, her team was eager to develop the app, and learned a lot through trial and error.

The 10-week Capital One Coders program is part of Capital One’s commitment to help ensure students have the necessary resources to understand and explore their interests in the STEM field, which is expected to grow nearly 17 percent over the next decade.

Through its East Plano Place-Based Initiative (PBI), Capital One has partnered over the past few years with Bowman Elementary and Williams High School on many programs that benefit area youth, and Capital One Coders is the latest. Capital One’s Plano Place-Based Initiative (Plano PBI) is a multi-faceted community revitalization project created by Capital One to serve as a catalyst for the continued development of Plano east of Highway 75.

This event also coincided with National Engineers Week, Feb. 21 – 27 and is one way approximately 50 local Capital One volunteers are helping young students learn valuable skills during a critical period in their education that can put them on paths for high-demand and rewarding tech careers in the future.