Written by Azaleta Ishmael-Newry 

Photo supplied by Bytes Bahamas

Blockchain Business School (BBS) recently held their annual event virtually where champion mentor and collaborator Ryan Austin from Harbour Island, Bahamas shared success stories of young coders and programmers with local and international attendees.

Austin highlighted that a small island developing nation like The Bahamas has many people who are passionate about creating and developing games and applications. His Bytes Bahamas Camp is a nucleus for this kind of creativity.

Almost 3-dozen participants from Harbour Island, North Eleuthera, New Providence and the Berry Islands learned to code and develop applications during a mix of hybrid and virtual attendance for the 2021 camp.

“If free coding courses inspired students to pursue software development as a career and in turn, those students take part in the economy by building applications and companies from their living rooms, that is a fantastic feat!” said Austin. He refers to the world’s first digital currency – the Sand Dollar that was recently created and launched by the Central Bank of The Bahamas.

Although Austin teaches the students to solve problems and find answers, they too reciprocated by using Discord for their communication platform. Austin witnessed community collaboration with a high engagement and idea exchange.

Lyn Narje from the Berry Islands said, “I learned more from the group than when I previously attempted coding on my own. The facilitators were easy to communicate with and, they were there to help us. I love coding, and I will 100% continue it after this camp.”

Another participant, 19-year-old Jason who was home from a university in Texas, attended the camp to learn how to code since he felt that it would help his studies in engineering.

Siblings Jayson and Genesis Thompson teamed up to design a short application that focused on the fishing industry. Jayson wrote the code while Genesis selected images and assisted with the design. Their educational tool can be viewed at https://bit.ly/3k5TJlg.

The winning entry came from 16-year-old Rodgeno Albury of Harbour Island who developed a Jeopardy-like quiz about Bitcoin, and this earned him a laptop donated by HAP – Harness All Possibilities. His game application can be viewed at https://bit.ly/2VVi7OP.

Coding involves creative thinking, strategy, math, writing, designing, learning from mistakes and working towards a final application or product. Albury reminds us through a quote by Winston Churchill: “Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”

Ryan Austin started his non-profit Bytes Bahamas in 2018 after he left his profession to focus on a venture with his wife however, he wanted to give back to the community. The following year, he sent three students to Nassau to participate in an inaugural 3-day Youth Conference and Hackathon, now known as Blockchain Business School, a virtual future of work learning experience fueled by HAP. The students were ecstatic to learn about AI, Blockchain and coding, and participate in teams.

For the past two years, Bytes Bahamas has signed up students to take workshops and certifications by ConsenSys Academy and virtual conferences through the Blockchain Business School. Founder Rhonda McDeigan-Eldridge of BBS has been speaking about the future of work for the past 5 years. Together with Austin, they want to make coding easier for youth to access and to learn blockchain to improve their future.

Collaboration is important for Kimberly King-Burns of Briland Modem Fund, an avid supporter of Bytes Bahamas. "Through technology and networking, the participants have tapped into a coding community that was once virtually isolated and can now follow the latest trends and develop pragmatic useful applications," said King-Burns.

Visiting developer Adam Kelly who grew up on Briland and works in Silicon Valley shared his experience with the learners while on holiday. Other supporters of the Bytes Bahamas Camp are COCOA Coffee House, the Harbour Island Library, private donors, and a partnership with the Haynes Library in Governors Harbour for meeting space. Bytes Bahamas and the Briland Modem Fund are now shifting their focus to work with schools on Harbour Island to help teachers deliver a coding curriculum. More information about the Camp can be found at www.bytesbahamas.com. More information on the Blockchain Business School and their recent speakers’ event can be found at www.242BBS.com.