Code Camp: Everything is possible, nothing is necessary
Whether beginner or junior professional — throughout the summer holidays, young people were able to implement their own programming projects in the Code Camp at the Jugendhaus Stuttgart-Neugereut with Porsche supporting the event of the Code + Design Initiative association.
It’s quiet — very quiet — at the Code Camp in Stuttgart-Neugereut. Normally, 20 young people between the ages of 14 and 18 make significantly more noise when working freely in groups. But on this hot summer’s day, the youth centre Neugereut is full of busy silence. Some of the young people wear headphones and are immersed in their own world. Some people play a computer game or surf the internet.
“At our camps, the guideline is ‘everything is possible, nothing is necessary’”, explains Anna Brückner, project manager of the Code + Design Initiative e.V. The association has launched the Code Camp project throughout Germany and also runs the Code University in Berlin, which is supported by Porsche. “During our events the supervisors in the youth centres usually have nothing to do, because the participants were highly concentrated on the issues they were solving. “When I see the kids like that, I have the utmost confidence in our future.”
The code camps were developed as the first point of contact for the next generation of programmers, because there were hardly any beginner offers for young people. “We want to provide a platform for young people who are interested in programming or just enjoy trying themselves out on new subjects. We just say ‘Look for something that can be improved in your environment through technology’ — and then everyone can do whatever they want and we as caregivers are there to help.”
Filesharing apps and a dinosaur game
And the concept works. In Code Camp Neugereut, which takes place in two courses of six days as part of the Stuttgart summer holiday programme, participants build music streaming and file sharing apps, an app for controlling debt with friends and a whole series of games. The 18-year-old Niklas, for example sits highly concentrated in a group of boys and purposefully creates his own Ludo game. “I’ve been programming since I was 15. Creating something out of nothing — that’s just great. Here at Code Camp I learned to share and exchange my code.”
Mia, the youngest participant of the Code Camp and daughter of a Porsche employee at the age of twelve is on the move with ease. She spins most of the time on the big aisle and only sits down at the PC every now and then. As a dinosaur fan from the age of two, she has now built her own game in which a dragon and a dino make friends. “I love dinosaurs. My first cuddly toy was a dino. And here in the Code Camp, as an only child, I have children around me every day, even during holidays. It’s really cool here.”
Porsche is supporting the Code Camp as part of the summer holiday programme with an amount of 20,000 euros for the organisation and technology needed for the two camps with a total of 88 participants. The sports car manufacturer also pays half of the contributions of the 29 children from Porsche employees. “The need for employees with IT know-how is growing steadily in our company. That’s why we want our donation to help get young people interested in IT and digitization,” says Boris Graßhoff from Human Resources Marketing. “With their mixed teams and open atmosphere, the Code Camps offer the best conditions for this.”
