Local teenager launches Code to Grow to help disadvantaged kids learn technology

by Sebastian Summer 

A Manhattan Beach teenager has raised $250,000 and launched a nonprofit that allows children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to learn computer coding. 

Jack Segil, who founded Code to Grow when he was 14.

Jack Segil, who will be a senior at Chadwick High School next year, has been coding since his early childhood. He became passionate about it at Planet Bravo, a summer coding camp for kids. 

 “I really got into coding in 4th grade,” Segil said. “I went to Planet Bravo, and learned more about coding through the internet.”

At 14, Segil began realizing a greater need within the coding community. 

 “I was kind of looking around one day and I saw ‘Oh, all of the kids here, they’re just like me. They’re white kids from rich families, mostly boys,’” he recalled. 

Eventually, Code to Grow emerged as Segil’s way to give back to the community that he has enjoyed so thoroughly.

 “I want to help other people like me to find this who would never have it,” he said. “I feel like that would be the way that I want to give back to the world.” 

Now 17, Segil’s drive to give back hasn’t wavered in the slightest. In just years, Code to Grow has blossomed into an organization able to send forty children to coding camps across Southern California. 

“The exponential growth… was amazing,” Segil said. “Look where we are now. It’s kind of hard to believe how far we’ve gotten.”

Code to Grow spends countless hours to ensure that everything runs smoothly and that all of the needs of the children that participate in the program are met.

 “We provide them rides and food so all [the caregivers] have to do is make them available. We partner with a fantastic company called Hop Skip Drive… It makes it really easy for us to give these kids transportation,” Segil said.

“We also pack them lunches. The kids at the Manhattan Beach location, I pack them lunches myself. Me and my brothers pack them 20 lunches per day. For the camps that I can’t feasibly make it to, we have the counselors order food for them at our expense.” 

Code to Grow is expanding beyond summer camp.

 “For those kids that raise their hands and say ‘Wow, I really like this, I think that I’m passionate about this, I want to do more’ —  starting this year, we’re going to put them through a curriculum that I made myself in which they learn a coding language called Python,” Segil said. “It teaches them Python over the course of about a year.” 

The kids that do choose to take the additional curriculum don’t have to worry about deadlines or expenses, as it is meant to be taken completely at the child’s own pace and completed throughout the academic school year on a school-issued device. After the curriculum is completed, kids are easily able to apply themselves to whatever project that they desire to pursue.

The new curriculum has been tested, but Segil realizes that some of the young students may struggle with new concepts, which is why the twelve unit curriculum offers the help of mentors in case any of the kids get stuck on a problem. 

“They go on a Zoom call with a mentor for an hour every week, maybe every other week,” Segil said. “Every three weeks if they really don’t need help.” 

These mentors are volunteers selected by Code to Grow to “help kids who are passionate about coding get over these roadblocks that [the kids] are helpless to do anything about and continue on having fun with the curriculum,” Segil said. 

As for the future of Code to Grow, Segil is determined to further maximize the opportunities that the organization provides. 

“More kids at more camps is definitely the end goal,” he said. “This would be something that I would one day want to take nationwide.” 

He also wants to build the organization to last. 

“I want to lead it to be sustainable… Having the kids who we put through the program give back to the program to create a self-fulfilling cycle,” Segil said. “That’s, I think, the direction that I want to head in.”

Segil has also begun to think about what Code to Grow will look like once he goes out to college. “Juggling Code to Grow and school has been pretty hard,” he said. “In college, I’ll have more free time… I have full intentions to continue with Code to Grow no matter where I go to college.” 

Segil has also tapped into his family to help. His two younger brothers help pack the kids’ lunches. His father, James Segil, serves on Code to Grow’s board of directors. He said he could not be more proud of what his son has built. 

“It’s pretty amazing to have a young man who, at the time, was 14, [and] who turns to his dad and says ‘You know what, I really want to do something to make an impact and help kids,’” James Segil said. “I’m beaming with pride.” 

“He’s so persistent,” he added. “Overcoming any challenges that we’ve had. It was a full-time project for him to develop a curriculum for these kids to learn how to code on their own.” 

James emphasized that though he’s on the board of directors, the growth of the nonprofit has been all his son’s doing. 

 “He does all of the work,” James said. “He makes the website. He builds the curriculum. He does all of the counseling. He does all of the fundraising… We’re all happy to support him and we’re really proud of what he’s done.”

The mission and values of Segil and Code to Grow caught the attention of Faralee, a single mother of three, all the way back at its genesis in 2021. 

“This kid cares about coding this much to want to share it with other kids, to want other kids to learn what he knows,” she said. “I was impressed by that.” 

Despite his initial apprehension upon entering the program, Shiloh, Faralee’s oldest son, came to enjoy Code to Grow, 

“The first week that I went, I realized that it wasn’t really that bad and I met a lot of new friends and I learned a lot of new things,” he said. “….It’s really opened my mind up to new ideas and new things.”

Three years later, Faralee says that Code to Grow has had a profound impact on Shiloh. While at first Shiloh “did not express an avid interest in coding,” she said, “Code to Grow influenced him in terms of what he now wants to major in in high school and the trajectory of his high school path.” 

Faralee has begun to spread the word of Code to Grow with every parent she knows.

 “I feel like the word needs to get out about this program. There needs to be more of this.” As to the future of the program, Faralee wishes Code to Grow nothing but the best, “I just wish that it continues to grow and that it impacts a lot of other kids in many other parts of the South Bay as it has with my kids.”

Code to Grow is currently accepting applications for the final two weeks of July. All of the information needed to apply can be found on their website codetogrow.org. During the first week of the two-week camp, children learn about game design through the lens of an RPG-maker. During the second week, kids are learning the basics of Python, which is one of the many languages of code. ER