{"id":141433,"date":"2025-08-13T04:11:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T04:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/141433\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T04:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T04:11:16","slug":"code-your-dreams-offers-young-chicagoans-free-tech-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/141433\/","title":{"rendered":"Code Your Dreams offers young Chicagoans free tech education"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a blistering August morning in Chicago, a group of young girls is escaping the heat at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.<\/p>\n

Despite it being an early morning on a Monday during summer vacation, the girls appeared to be having a great time at the Museum, which was hosting a Girls in STEM event.<\/p>\n

The object of their attention: a dancing robot named Benny.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow!\u201d one girl said. \u201cIt\u2019s so cool!\u201d<\/p>\n

But what the girls didn\u2019t know was that Benny was actually coded by a group of girls not much older than them as part of a Robotics and Dance summer program.<\/p>\n

“Every day they met, they learned about robotics engineering and they actually coded the robot to dance the ‘Cha-Cha Slide,’ which is a Chicago-born dance,\u201d said Brianne Caplan.<\/p>\n

Caplan is the founder and CEO of Code Your Dreams<\/a>, a nonprofit that provides free and stipend-based programs to students of all ages, from kindergarteners in schools, to adults in correctional facilities.<\/p>\n

“We think that the best innovators are community members themselves,\u201d Caplan said. \u201cWe want anyone walking in their neighborhood to be able to see a problem and then say, \u2018I can create a solution for this using technology.\u2019”<\/p>\n

Caplan founded the organization in 2018, but she said she knew she had a passion for technology and education when she was in college.<\/p>\n

\""Benny"<\/p>\n

“Benny” the robot was coded by a group of eighth grade girls this summer as part of Code Your Dreams’ Robotics and Dance program.<\/p>\n

Photo credit Carolina Garibay<\/p>\n

“It was clear from the first day of my intro class that I was already behind, and I was the only woman in my class,\u201d she said. \u201cThat got me into thinking: \u2018What are the inequities that exist in computer science education?\u2019”<\/p>\n

Caplan said Code Your Dreams primarily works with low-income students, students with disabilities and justice-impacted students. She said the goal is to make technology education more accessible and to show students the endless possibilities there are in the field.<\/p>\n

“Who we see is who we believe that we can achieve,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really important to bring technologists everywhere and show that technology doesn’t have to be a software engineer at Facebook. You can do policy within technology. You can be an activist for your community. You can be a digital artist. So there’s just so much potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brianne<\/p>\n

Brianne Caplan is the founder and CEO of nonprofit Code Your Dreams, which provides free and stipend-based programs to students.<\/p>\n

Photo credit Carolina Garibay<\/p>\n

For example, 14-year-old Alice, the organization’s Youth Media Director, is combining her passion for helping the Earth with her interest in coding.<\/p>\n

“I’m creating an app and it shows about helping the world, recycling, composting, sorting out trash,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said while she’s still new to coding, Code Your Dreams has provided a safe, welcoming space for her to learn and develop her skills.<\/p>\n

“Code Your Dreams has helped me become more confident, not just with coding, but with school as well and making new connections and friends,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And that’s what Caplan said is her hope for students.<\/p>\n

“Just confidence and knowing that our students can create change that can impact their communities, but can also impact communities all around the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a blistering August morning in Chicago, a group of young girls is escaping the heat at the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-141433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115019506271234549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}