Website development for teens
Published on 08/08/2022
Celebrating A Fully-Fledged Website For A First Real Client!
We are so impressed by Amer, one of our brilliant CodeBrave Scholars, who is building a website for his first client as part of the work experience phase of his CodeBrave Scholarship.
“[The work experience was] beneficial because I needed experience to start working at companies and on big projects. Now, I can include [website development] work experience in my CV. This internship is a gate to my future!”
Meet Amer
Meet Amer, a 17 year old CodeBrave student who is a part of CodeBrave Scholar’s pilot program. The program is a 6-month course in coding and website development for exceptionally motivated 14-17 year olds all over Lebanon. Each scholar receives 3 hours of private tutoring per week in groups of two.
Connecting students with work experience
Amer and his classmate Yousef have come a long way. After 4 months learning web development, Amer was linked via CodeBrave with a US-based company, Your Career Strategy, in need of a new website. Under the supervision of his CodeBrave tutor Hani, Amer and Yousef developed a workplan, timeline and design for their boss Eli. After receiving his feedback, they began building the site.
“I’m proud of the team […] and myself. Despite the fact that Youssef and I had the Lebanese Baccalaureate to study for, we still managed to build a full website for a real company with all the needed features,” says Amer.
Amer and his teammate faced many technical issues like adapting to WordPress and dealing with the customer service of the website hosting. However, the biggest coding challenge they faced when building the website is creating a carousel.
“It appears simple […] but it took us around a week to build! At least, it taught me how to properly use CSS,” he shared.
Amer’s Coding Journey
Amer has always been interested in programming, and enjoys talking about it with friends as well. Before joining our CodeBrave Scholarship, he taught himself Python and GUI online for fun; he wanted to build applications, websites, and games.
He loves using projects to learn about new coding frameworks, which is exactly how we teach at CodeBrave. When Jawad, his CodeBrave teacher, asked him why he worked on a particular project, Amer’s answer was “Because I wanted to learn React.”
Coding and website development for teens who are self-driven is both rewarding and challenging. When Amer started learning with us, we assigned him a learning level based on his interview. However, soon after starting, he exceeded the level he was placed in. We quickly had to switch him to a higher level to meet his needs. We couldn’t be prouder of what he achieved so far and how he and Youssef managed their first internship.
What Tomorrow Holds
Since then, Amer has developed his own website, which includes his professional work, resume, and portfolio. His portfolio contains projects he developed on his own. Some examples are games such as tic tac toe, a guessing game that includes a leaderboard, and a chatbot. Professionals who have been in the tech industry for over 8 years were impressed with his portfolio. They said that Amer’s website shows a level of skill that many graduate-level students don’t have.
Amer’s story shows how young people can change their lives through building tech skills and experience. Whatever the future holds for Amer, one thing’s for sure: it’s bright. And we are proud to have been a part of his journey.
P.S.: We are very excited to announce that Amer and Youssef have been accepted into another 6-month internship program at a tech company at the Beirut Digital District! Their CodeBrave mentor will be checking in often to make sure they are keeping up with the tech aspect of things and supporting them throughout.