CONCORD— If a child starts the Code Ninja program at 8-years-old, the owners of the coding center say in four years they will learn to code, create their own application and learn to sell and market it to the world.
Vivek and Anjali Dighe opened a Code Ninjas franchise in Christenbury Corners in February and have been teaching children ages 7-14 how to create video games using JavaScript in the comfort of an inspirational and kid-friendly dojo.
“The reason why kids connect with JavaScript is because a lot of games and apps that are developed in the app store are actually created in JavaScript,” Anjali said. “So it’s a passion they already have, so we take that passion and actually build on it the skill sets of learning the coding language of JavaScript. They are learning to read it, write it and develop it.”
Why Code Ninjas?
Although they are originally from the Charlotte area— Anjali went to Northwest Cabarrus High School— the couple only recently moved back to North Carolina from Washington D.C. When they moved home they had a hard time finding STEM programs for their 14-year-old son.
“He went to a STEM-centric school before coming down here, so his core curriculum included engineering and advanced science. He was actually in a situation where in the fifth and sixth grades, he was actually learning advanced concepts,” Anjali said. “So when we came back, we have a lot of family down here, but we also wanted to figure out how do we take a resource that’s not available right now to kids like ours and how do we create that.”
They started doing some research and came across Code Ninjas, which at the time was searching for franchisees. So the couple purchased four sites that include the one in Concord, with plans to open others in Ballantyne and Myers Park.
Concord was the first one to open because the couple saw it as the perfect location to give back to the community.
“From the perspective of Concord, we recognize there are so many resources on the south side of Charlotte and in the middle of Charlotte, but there are a lot of people that live on the north side of Charlotte where the resources just aren’t coming up here,” Anjali said. “This location was really conducive to what we wanted to do.”
Smack in the middle of what Anjali called great schools and great communities, the location has already allowed them to form a relationships with Cox Mill High School. Students enrolled in the school’s Academy of Information Technology are required to complete a paid internship, so many of them have chosen to work at Code Ninjas.
“They work with the kids. They’ve been on robotics teams, so the kids really love interacting with them,” Anjali said. “But then on the flip side of it, they are also receiving internship credit. So we’ve been able to really form a nice, symbiotic relationship with them, which is a win-win and give back to the community.”
Basics of the program
Going off the theme of its name, the Code Ninjas program is run almost like a karate center. Students can level up by receiving different color belts— or in this case bracelets— and they work at their own pace in the dojo while being taught by a sensei, usually a student from Cox Mill.
The entire program takes three years to complete and kids come in two days a week for an hour each time.
The first year the student learns developing concepts, in year two they’re using a gaming platform to build their own words and in the third year they create their own game. Then in the fourth year they learn how to take their game to the market, complete a competitive analysis and continue to develop their game based on feedback from those who play it.
“We want them to have a full understanding. So in four years they’ve learned JavaScript, they’ve created and developed their own app or game and they’ve put it up on the market,” Anjali said. “So they’ve got something they can show for all of the time and effort they’ve put in. An 8-year-old that comes in, by the time they are 12 they have an app developed and up on the app store.”
The couple knows that there is a lot of information available online on coding and creating games, but says that kids and parents don’t always know how to navigate that information.
“Sometimes they are getting into places that are not so for us safety is the first concern. We want to make sure that it’s a controlled environment that parents can feel really good about; not just from a physical security perspective but also from a emotional and mental perspective,” Anjali said. “They are still doing something that they love to do, which is gaming, but they are doing it in a safe environment.”
Building on passions to create a community
If you asked them five years ago, Vivek and Anjali said they would have never believed that they would leave their corporate jobs to hang out with kids all day. But they both say they wouldn’t change their decision for anything.
The Code Ninja students work at their own pace to earn the belts, but Vivek said the best part about the dojo is the relationships and community the students build amongst each other. Their passion or gaming and creating brings them together.
“At the end of the day all of the kids that come through here are king of like-minded because they’re passionate about gaming. So the community that ends up building on that, flips the whole thing on its head,” Anjali said. “They’re not here because they are being forced to be here as a tutoring center or anything like that, they want to be here.”
Code Ninjas is planning an open house for any parent who is interested in getting their child involved on Saturday, Sept. 8 from 1-4 p.m.
The center is located at 8905 Christenbury Parkway, Suite 20 in Concord.