Origin of Codefy

Lucy Chen started out quarantine with gardening and baking, but eventually decided to teach her brother some simple Python. Eventually, her brother made a rock paper scissors game. Chen noticed the joy her brother experienced from his success, which sparked an interest in recreating this same excitement for others. Eventually, she came up with the idea of offering coding classes to the community. She communicated this idea to Anaum Khan, and they created the classes offered today through Codefy.

Codefy Co-founders Chen and Khan met at the summer program AI4ALL, which is an Artificial Intelligence program held at the University of Maryland.  After its conclusion, Chen and Khan received a community service grant from the program. 

“As alumni of the program, we often receive emails about ways to get involved and I noticed an application for a community outreach grant” Khan said. “I had attended hackathons in the past like Technica and Bitcamp at the University of Maryland and saw that other AI4ALL alumni in California had their own hackathons so we decided it was time to bring that to the DMV. I reached out to Lucy and we applied to the grant together.”

They have both attended hackathons in the past, but they noticed that these hackathons were generally directed towards students with more coding experience.  “After attending quite a few hackathons, we found that most hackathons were usually geared towards older and more experienced students”, said Chen. Only about 18% of women earn a computer science bachelor’s degree in the United States, so this grant could provide an opportunity for girls to learn CS, especially those in less experienced grades, like grades 7-10.

When asked about the reasoning for creating this hackathon, Chen responded, “[Codefy] was originally going to be a hackathon for girls grades 7-10 because after attended quite a few hackathons, we found that most hackathons were usually geared towards older and more experienced students, and we felt that having a hackathon for younger students would be more beneficial.”

 Due to the recent quarantine, this hackathon could no longer go on in person, so Chen and Khan decided to move online.

 “At first it was disappointing to have to cancel the event but we decided that hosting it online during the summer would allow us to connect with more students from around the country and expand the organization as before the virus broke out. Codefy only consisted of two people but now it’s grown a lot”. Khan said.

Although Chen’s and Khan’s original plan for Codefy is not the same plan as today, their initial goal has still been upheld. 

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“I really hope that students attending the Codefy classes are also able to find that other side of CS, the part that gets you into the zone and gets you really involved with your work. And I really think that we can do that, with all of the great mentors who are running the classes and teaching the students.”