Sixteen-year-old Adrianna Clashing had an incredible experience as a teaching assistant, at this year’s staging of the JamCoders Summer Camp held at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus. 

 The Campion College past student said her interaction with the students and the lecturers solidified her interest in the field of computer science and its related disciplines.

 “It was a very good social environment. Everyone was very kind, and overall, I had a positive experience,” Clashing said. 

 “I am interested in pursuing a career in computer science, architecture and or electrical engineering. It was interesting to understand the basics of problem solving associated with coding. With this knowledge, we were able to create simple games in python,” she added.

With her renewed knowledge and interest in the computer science field, Clashing is already considering to return to the camp next year to inspire other students to follow their dreams. 

Xavier Henry, also a past student of Campion College, although he has migrated to the United States, decided to return home to assist at the camp as a teaching assistant. He is currently enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

“I am interested in electrical engineering, computer science and economics. I have been doing programming since I was 12 years old. I didn’t study it formally so it was a bit challenging. I appreciate the experience at the camp, where I have received added instruction in this area,” Henry said. 

Henry has been actively involved with the camp, since its inception three years ago. “It has been amazing seeing students from where they started, and making improvements as they go along. The teachers do not measure performance, but in terms of how they can improve their abilities over time,” Henry said.

JamCoders was initially conceived by Jamar McNaughton, more popularly known as Chronixx, Jamaican reggae artiste. The Chronixx team after reading about the AddisCoder programme in Ethiopia, then made a generous founding donation to support creation of the programme through his Caring Hands of Rastafari (CHOR) Foundation.

The JamCoders summer camp has taught close to 200 students from across Jamaica in the past four summers. The camp was first launched on the UWI Mona campus in Kingston, in Summer 2022.

McNaughton who was present at the closing ceremony of the camp, encouraged the students to be positive and pursue their dreams. 

“AI learns and adapts to programming that is conceived by the mind. We are more intelligent than the machines, so do not allow the concept of AI to cloud your understanding. We are the power that advances this phenomenon,” he said.

The Summer Camp is coordinated by The UWI Mona’s Dr Daniel Fokum, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science in the Department of Computing in the Faculty of Science and Technology and Professor Jelani Nelson, Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, and founder of AddisCoder, Inc. 

Photo caption (L-R): Xavier Henry and Adrianna Clashing