Fremont Teen Leads App Makers Organization

FREMONT, CA — Washington High School junior Japleen Kaur became inspired to teach the art of app development to elementary and junior high school students while she worked on her own app idea to help teenage students better manage their schedules and stress.

Kaur knows firsthand the importance of reaching kids when they are young.

"My interest in the field of computer science, which has only continued to grow over time, started when I joined the Girls Who Code Club at my local library in middle school," Kaur told Patch. "After being introduced to HTML, CSS and Python in the club and having the opportunity to make many programs such as games with these languages, I knew that I wanted to pursue computer science in the future as my major."

Kaur co-founded No App Maker Left Behind in 2018 with Ashwin Maheshwar, a South Bay student. She volunteered and taught young students at Fremont and Union City libraries during her freshman and sophomore years, leveraging MIT App Inventor.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Kaur watched her younger sister get distracted with online learning, so she talked to Grace Wong, her sister’s after-school program director at Learning Bee. Wong told her that this was a common problem for many young kids.

Kaur decided to turn the pandemic crisis into an opportunity to teach young kids app development virtually. She volunteered her time twice a week to teach third through sixth grade students online.

She has since taught six online sessions with about 10 kids per session. Though it was challenging, Kaur worked diligently to redesign her curriculum for online teaching.

A year into the pandemic, she continues to work with eager young students who look forward to her classes each week.

Pre-Pandemic 'Hackathon'

Kaur hosted a "hackathon" in fall 2019 at Enquero, a South Bay technology solutions company. The event was a huge success: Khalis Foundation sponsored it, and more than a dozen enthusiastic kids from Bay Area elementary and middle schools attended.

Each student competed hard and came up with unique app ideas, such as one that showed users which restaurants have recyclable leftover food and another that combined math with a video game to make learning more interactive.

The judges were impressed with all the ideas.

Sonal Koul, CEO and co-founder of Articence Inc., was one of the event's judges. She applauded Kaur’s efforts: "Japleen, it was a pleasure judging an enthusiastic group of third [to] eighth graders who made apps with a perfect balance of technology and social responsibility. You did an awesome job of mentoring them.”

This year, Kaur is working on a plan to host a virtual hackathon at the end of March. More than a dozen students have already signed up for the event.

Kaur also expanded her organization nationally and now has six chapters in the Bay Area and Texas, with two more on the way. She is working on taking the organization overseas.

“I am currently discussing how to bring in students to both teach and learn from Azerbaijan," she said. "I am talking with some principals in schools there. I want all interested kids to learn this skill.”

All of this from a high school student who hasn't even applied to college yet. If she has her way, Kaur will not venture far for her studies. "I am open to all universities after high school, but I would especially be interested in attending the [electrical engineering and computer science] program at UC Berkeley," she said.

Kaur has no plans to leave No App Maker Left Behind. "I am looking forward to the next 10 years of learning, growing in my field and giving back," she said. "I plan to continue to be involved with younger kids interested in the Computer Science field."

See Japleen Kaur on LinkedIn.