Meet the Scratcher: Kartik C.
From coding to hosting: a high school student pays it forward with Scratch
By My Nguyen
On May 9, 2015, Scratchers around the globe will join together for Scratch Day—an annual event designed to celebrate the creations, collaborations and accomplishments within the Scratch community.
Last year, over 200 events in 40 countries celebrated Scratch Day worldwide.
In the absence of a local Scratch Day in his community, one Bay Area high school student, Kartik C.—who began using Scratch when he was 10-years-old—saw an opportunity to take initiative.
With the help of the computer science department at Gunn High School, Kartik hosted his own Scratch Day last year.
The Scratch Foundation recently spoke with Kartik to learn more about his Scratch Day experience and what motivated him to organize his own event.
What motivated you to organize a Scratch Day event?
Well, Scratch was what made me fall in love with computer science; introducing Scratch to more kids seemed like the perfect way to give back to the community.
What surprised you about hosting an event of this nature, if anything?
The turnout. People are actually interested in events like these.
What would you recommend other students do if they plan to host their own Scratch Day?
Talk to teachers at your local middle school, and if possible send a message on the parents’ mailing list. It’s a great way to spread the word. Also, use Eventbrite for registration. It’s quick and painless in comparison to most other services.
Don’t feel compelled to have (or be intimidated by the prospect of) a substantial lecture — I trailed off when I realized people were more interested in their own projects. In fact, budget the majority of your time for letting people work on a project of their choice.
Make sure people are interacting with each other and asking lots of questions. If you feel things are getting quiet, just walk by someone and ask them a question about their project — “Hey, that’s pretty cool! Can you make the cat meow when you catch it?”.
What initially excited you about Scratch?
As a 10-year-old, I had no idea how computers worked. Being able to make sprites move around when a key was pressed was very empowering—in any other language, by the way, it takes at least a few days of work before you can do stuff like that! I was addicted waaay before I realized I was programming.
The Scratch community is amazing. Getting compliments on your projects from hundreds of people is very encouraging. And the discussions we had on the 1.4 forums were delicious — I’ve met most of my best friends through Scratch.
What would you say to students who might not think Scratch or coding is for them?
The best way to learn is to find a project that you really care about — game, app, website, anything — and then learn the pieces you need to complete that project. Ask for help whenever you’re stuck, because almost everyone in the programming world is happy to point you in the right direction.
Any project you make will teach you the basics of computer science, and you won’t even notice because you’re having too much fun building amazing things.
My Nguyen is Communications Specialist for the Scratch Foundation.
