An Okanagan Mission Secondary student is being recognized for his computer coding efforts.
Grade 12 student Parker Burns won first in the annual iGen young entrepreneur competition and got the opportunity to present his project—Code Rabbit—at Metabridge, which connected tech entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley June 9.
Code Rabbit is about teaching coding and making it understandable for everyone. Burns knew the concept would work while he was developing it with another team, so he made it his own.
“People really liked my style of teaching. I like making videos and I like teaching people,” he said.
The outspoken student has been teaching himself coding since he was 12. When he was 15, he started a YouTube channel which gained popularity.
“It was crazy because I was presenting at Metabridge with the top 15 Canadian startups, who had all entered months ago,” said Burns.
“At first I was worried about big investors, but after seeing a few presentations I got up there and it was a great experience.”
Burns was awarded a certificate of recognition during a regular school board meeting Wednesday. His next plan is to start teaching teachers how to code in the district.
“It’s part of the curriculum and not a lot of teachers know how to code,” he said, adding with the increasing focus on tech jobs, he wants to ensure teachers and students learn properly.
Next year, he is attending Okanagan College for business.
He also showed his project’s audition video at the school board meeting, which entails Mayor Colin Basran jumping over puddles of water.
@carliberry_
carli.berry@kelownacapnews.com
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