Meet Your Neighbor: Gabriel Yiu

Last Summer my friend asked me to go to a job fair with him. I already had a summer job lined up, so I tagged along for fun.  I consider it kind of miraculous what happened next.

At the fair I met a QCH staff member who worked in Youth Employment Services. He noticed coding on my resume and asked if I’d be interested in teaching a youth coding class. I was hired on the spot and am now in my second summer with QCH.

Coding powers our digital world. The tech industry is always growing, and it’s not just coders or computer science majors they’re looking for. They need graphic designers, software developers, computer engineers, linguists, mathematicians and more.

Coding is like a foreign language. Once my students become fluent in the kind of thinking required to break down a coding problem, they can pretty much pick up any coding language. It’s a lifelong skill. It teaches problem solving, organization, math, storytelling, and designing. The beauty of coding is that it comes in handy for different aspects of life and allows kids to express themselves creatively. It just requires a little bit of practice and work.

I feel good when I’m teaching the class. It's like I’m opening a world for my students to explore.