State-of-the-Art Coding Center Debuts in Arlington Heights

Say the words, “video game” and your kids are bound to stop and listen. The local owners of a new Code Ninjas, a learning center that recently opened at 69 W. Rand Rd., know that video games are not only fun, but educational when kids are building the video games themselves.

Code Ninjas serves the local area by teaching children computer coding and problem-solving skills while having fun building video games. The Arlington Heights location is owned and operated by Nawroz Pirani and Zeeshan Bhimji, adding to their existing location in Long Grove.

This marks Pirani and Bhimji’s second Code Ninjas location in the Chicagoland area, adding to their existing center in Long Grove, where they are seeing great success. Knowing the importance of coding and STEM education in today’s technology-heavy landscape, Pirani and Bhimji wanted to provide an outlet for the Arlington Heights community during these uncertain times. Pirani has more than 10 years of experience in the higher education industry and was also responsible for financial management of a $150 million professional education business. Immediately after graduating from DePaul, Bhimji started his first franchise at age 24, growing it into a multimillion operation. Since then, he has founded a successful software startup in the property-tech space, showinghero.com, which was nominated for the 2018 Chicago Innovation award.

“Coding is more important now more than ever, and we are thrilled to offer a place for kids to learn, grow, socialize, and most importantly have fun,” said Pirani. “Both Zeeshan and I came to this country to pursue an education so that we could make our lives better. Now as business owners, we hope to spread this critical knowledge to our local youth.”

Suburban Chicago children ages 7-14 can look forward to visiting the new Code Ninjas center to learn how to code in a fun, safe, and social learning environment where gaming is celebrated, and STEM is cool. The duo is also planning on opening their third center in the Lincoln Park area of City of Chicago. Everything about Code Ninjas is built around fun, which keeps kids coming back. The center also provides the results that parents are looking for, as their children gain coding and problem-solving skills they’ll need for the jobs of the future.

Code Ninjas accomplishes this with a robust, game-based curriculum made up of nine belts, just like martial arts. The curriculum is self-paced, but not self-taught; kids get immediate help and encouragement from Code Senseis and fellow students as they advance from white to black belt. Each belt covers specific programming languages, coding concepts and incorporates lessons ranging from game development, circuitry, robotics and other STEM based activities to enhance the Ninjas exposure and experience. The program keeps kids motivated with little wins along the way, and “Belt-Up” celebrations where they receive color-coded wristbands to mark their graduation to the next level. By the time a child finishes the program, they will publish an app in an app store. By the time a child finishes the program, they will be able to code, develop and publish programs and an app to one of the app stores.

Code Ninjas offers a variety of opportunities for children to get involved, including a flexible weeknight drop-in program, camps and Parents Night Out events on weekends.

For more information about the Arlington Heights Code Ninjas location, please visit https://www.codeninjas.com/il-arlington-heights.