Coding Champion Danielle Competes in Programming Contests!

Danielle is in 5th grade and lives in Talladega, Alabama. She’s 11 years old and told us she loves to draw, play video games like Road Block and Undertale, but most of all, code. She’s created some incredible projects, so we chatted with her to find out how she started coding and why she loves it.

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A game developer.

How did you get introduced to coding? It sparked when I was in 4th grade. My gifted teacher Ms. Harris told us that we would be participating in the technology fair and that’s when I started coding like crazy. I didn’t understand one bit of it until I started looking at videos on Youtube. I participate in two competitions, and I won second place in both for computer programming. I’ve been using Tynker since August 19th, since this school year started.

Do you look at the Tynker community projects? Yes. I saw this one game called Facemaker Two, and I was like, “I wanna see if I can do this again.” I did recreate it, using less blocks than the original game.

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I would post it on Tynker. Then I would go to school and show my classmates, my gifted teacher, my teachers, my librarian, and my principal. Today I went to Channel 47 for an interview. My interviewer said that there were many other star students, but my interview in particular was one of the best and most interesting. I was excited to be on TV. Butterflies were rustling in my stomach!

You can see Danielle’s TV appearance on WOIL TV47 here!

What is your favorite thing you’ve made? My Kawaii maker game.

What are you planning to make next? Something related to my old game. It was called Penguin Worm and that’s what I entered to win those fairs, actually. I’ve also been seeing quite a few very well made games that look like some of Roblox’s games. Some of the games even look 3D, so that’s what I want to try to replicate on Tynker.

Why do you like to code? Because I get to give fun to the world.

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yes! On Tuesday next week my class is going to go code and my teacher actually asked me to help her for Martin Luther King day.

What advice would you give for kids starting out with Tynker? Try to look up some videos to see if they could find more inspiration.

Erica, Danielle’s mother, thinks Danielle’s coding skills are amazing, and is very proud of all she’s accomplished. She loves coding because it’s an enjoyable hobby for Danielle that can also be turned into a career in the future. Erica believes “coding opens kids’ minds,” and told us, “it’s fantastic that kids have the ability to interact with software like Tynker so they can become problem solvers.”

Thanks for your time, Erica and Danielle! We’re inspired by your projects and are so happy to have a rising coding star using Tynker. Good luck with future competitions!