Conduit Coders Make History: National Champions in Youth Coding League

Friday, December 13^th , marked the end of another season for the Conduit Coders, the Youth Coding League team that the Ada Jobs Foundation supports with the help of the Build to Scale grant. In their third season, the Conduit Coders continue to grow and shine even brighter than before, outdoing their previous accomplishments and soaring to new heights. In their first season, Coach Sunnie Dawn Baker was incredibly pleased with the team’s seventh place finish. In their second season, when they clinched the second-place spot, she could not believe it. This season their accomplishments have blown her away, securing first place, national championships, in both the fifth/sixth and seventh/eighth grade divisions— a feat that no team has ever accomplished before in Youth Coding League history.

The Fall 2024 season has been a time of exciting growth and new achievements. The Conduit Coders expanded its reach, welcoming coders from five different school districts: Ada, Byng, Latta, Roff, and Vanoss. This season, the team also added a seventh and eighth grade team. While adding This team had always been a possibility, it became a priority when several coders from the previous years were about to age out of the program. The Ada Jobs Foundation envisions a seamless pipeline of technological knowledge and training that guides students from fifth grade through higher education or into the workforce. While the current program focuses on grades 5-8, students face a two-year gap before they can begin studying at Pontotoc Technology Center as high school juniors. Baker and her colleagues are working to bridge this gap, aiming to provide students with a continuous pathway into the digital economy—whether as skilled workers or entrepreneurs.

This year, the Youth Coing League debuted their own curriculum. In the past they had been using pre-made courses that Google CS First designed. However, they wanted to provide their own program to make sure their program accurately reflected their goals and values; in particular, the encouragement of the entrepreneurial spirit being a priority. For the 5^th and 6^th grade division, the theme this season was food. The students were encouraged to explore agriculture technology while  also considering how to transform their own food innovations into businesses. They worked on designing websites for both information and online ordering, as well as coding projects that could calculate costs and profit margins.

Once the regular season was completed, they were challenged with a postseason prompt that asked them to “design a solution to a problem you see that involves food.” While there were many great ideas, two projects ended up advancing to the finals. The “Baby Albino Monkeys,” a team comprised of Bradalyn Pinley (Roff 5^th) and Kayne Scott (Roff 6^th) developed a project around the dangers of expired foods, including several games for the users to play. Their project earned fifth place nationally in the Community Favorite category. “Fin Fury,” a brother-sister duo made up of Valor Wilkerson (Ada 5^th) and Dalton Wilkerson (Ada 6^th), were the Technical Merit selection from the Conduit Coders. They developed a project where they tackled the challenges of overfishing with an engaging story and several games. Their project earned third place in Technical Merit.

In the 7/8 grade division, the theme this season was “The Greater Good.” The program challenged coders to examine people and organizations in their communities who were making a positive impact and solving problems. The program emphasized the importance of collecting and sharing data, developing a website or app, planning events, and creating commercials to advocate for a cause. In the postseason, they were asked to “build a solution using technology that makes the world a better place.” The project that earned the Technical Merit award for this division also became the Community Favorite, advancing to the final round of community voting. Eli Priddle (Ada 7th), William Walters (Ada 7th), and Caisen Herrera (Latta 7th), working as “The Three Coderteers,” designed a complex project to help the homeless by providing warm and secure sleep pods that could be delivered directly to those in need.

While the Youth Coding League teaches these coders the basic principles of coding logic, such as utilizing if/then statements, loops, variables, and object-oriented programming, it also teaches them many soft skills. They learn how to take constructive criticism and apply it to their projects, revising and improving their work right up to the due date. Along the way, they develop critical thinking skills and perseverance-when their code encounters issues, they keep trying until they find a solution. They also learn the importance of missing deadlines, as missing one impacts the entire team. Most importantly, they understand the value of fulfilling their obligations and commitments, lessons that will serve them well in the future and make them valuable members of their communities.

Their commitment and perseverance certainly paid off. Not only did the team achieve first place status, as well as having projects place in the postseason finals, but a total of ten coders were ranked in the top ten in between the two divisions. For the 7^thand8^th grade division, Caisen Herrera (Latta 7^th) came in tenth, Jake Blanck (Ada 7^th) came in ninth, Logan Parnell (Vanoss 8^th) came in eighth, and Eli Priddle (Ada 7^th) took first place. For the 5^th and6^th grade division, six students tied for 1^st place in individual standings: Sophia Baker (Ada 6^th), Jameson Thompson (Byng 6^th), Bradalyn Pinley (Roff 5^th), Valor Wilkerson (Ada 5^th), Josephine Berman (Ada 5^th), and Hadley Howry (Ada 5^th). In total, these coders earned $1,950 in prize money, along with kindles and wireless speakers awarded to teams for postseason success.

Coach Baker and the whole team at the Ada Jobs Foundation continue to be proud of the coders and cannot wait to see what they create in the 2024 Spring season. This coming year the team will continue to grow and the students are excited about the new themes. The 5^thand6^th graders will be exploring ideas around space, while the 7^th and 8^th graders will be delving into the world of game development. While the Youth Coding League shapes the lives of its participants, it also influences the broader community. Carol Ervin, President of the Ada Jobs Foundation, says, “I am incredibly excited and proud of our nationally ranked coding team right here in Ada. Emerging industries often look into programs like these when researching communities to invest in, both now and in the future.” Through Conduit Coders, we are investing in these individuals, but we are also investing in the future of our community as a whole.