Club Spotlight —April

This month’s spotlight is a little bit different. This month we introduce you to Ruby who is the coordinator of the UTS (University of Technology Sydney) SOUL program, a program that provides volunteers from the University to deliver Code Clubs in the Parramatta City Libraries.

Describe your program

The UTS SOUL Award is a co-curricular program for UTS students to go beyond their degree and into the community — to skill up, give back, and make change! Since 2019, SOULies, mostly from the Faculty of Engineering and IT, have been working with City of Parramatta libraries to facilitate Code Club programs across their branches. To date, 25 volunteers have delivered 15 clubs covering everything from Scratch & Python to HTML, CSS & Animation.

Why did you start a Code Club?

The SOUL Code Club program was established by SOUL Alumni Chau Au — one of the first Code Club volunteers! Chau was instrumental in setting up clubs at a number of the City of Parramatta library branches and he developed resources to support other UTS students to help deliver them.

I keep coming back to Code Club because

It is such a great opportunity for Engineering and IT students to use the skills they’ve learned in the classroom for social good. And also learn and practice other skills like facilitation, communicating complex ideas simply, and working with young people.

My Code Club highlight

In 2021, we ran two Code Clubs online! These programs were really popular as they bridged the gap between school and work-from-home ending during lockdown.

Thank Ruby, for sharing your program with us. It would be great to see this program extend to more of our Universities! Reach out if you are interested.

Happy coding!

Kaye

Manager, Code Club Australia