Code Ninjas Celebrates First Ever Black Belt 'Ninja'

Concord, NC Student Honored as First Black Belt Recipient in Franchise History

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Jul 12, 2021, 10:30 ET

CONCORD, N.C., July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Code Ninjas, the world's largest and fastest growing kids coding franchise, is about to celebrate the accomplishments of one particular ninja: earning their Black Belt status. The ninja being celebrated is David Nguyen, a rising sophomore at Cox Mill High School who has been developing his coding skills at the Code Ninjas Concord location since its opening in 2018.

In order to reach the Black Belt status at Code Ninjas, David completed nine levels of courses within a four-year timeline. The courses he completed included: JavaScript, Lua in Roblox, and C# in Unity. During the final belt, Black Belt, he created a game/app which will publish to a popular app store soon; making it downloadable for the public. It is a 'clicker game' which consists of the player performing simple actions such as clicking on the screen repeatedly. The game itself is simple in nature for the user, but on the back end, it involves a lot of mathematical knowledge to create.

David's interest in coding began when he and three friends on a gaming platform realized that there was an issue with a plugin that was not getting updated due to the lack of a development team thereby creating inconsistency with the game. The group took it upon themselves to become a development team as a hobby but soon realized if they didn't take it more seriously, the game would eventually be forgotten. David is just one of a plethora of students who have realized their passion for code through different venues. As he continued his path through the program, he became someone the other students looked up to and strived to be like. Code Ninjas Concord hopes to hire him as a sensei in the near future.

"We are so proud to announce that David is the first ninja to complete his Black Belt not only at our location, but company-wide," says Anjali Dighe, Owner of Code Ninjas Concord. "He has shown such promise, intelligence and curiosity from Day One. I have personally seen him develop his communication and social skills in addition to his problem solving and critical thinking skills. Not only is this a huge accomplishment for David, it is an incredible testimony to the value and skill sets Code Ninjas brings to our student population and community."

Code Ninjas is all about providing kids with the opportunity to learn coding in a way that also builds their overall problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Building the game at the end is an impressive feat, and requires a lot of focus and effort to implement all that was learned in the previous eight belts.

"Our ninjas are tasked with not only challenging themselves mentally, but also socially," says Justin Nihiser, CEO of Code Ninjas. "We want them to learn to code and think logically while continuing to build relationships with their fellow ninjas. Our mission is to affect change in the community; whatever that might look like: collaborating with like-minded individuals, solving problems in a group or simply learning how to communicate with others. Code Ninjas is a place where kids speak the same language, taking their acquired skills with them outside the dojo and applying them in the real world."

With David's accomplishment, the Code Ninjas team is excited for even more ninjas to graduate to the Black Belt status. Throughout the company, there are at least 10 other ninjas also working on their final Black Belt project. The outstanding work ethic and drive shown by Code Ninjas' students spurs on a love for STEM and computer science; keeping the curiosity and love of learning with them into their college years and the workplace.

At Code Ninjas, kids learn how to code in a fun, safe, and social learning environment where gaming is celebrated, and STEM is cool. Code Ninjas offers kids the opportunity to dive into fun, challenging, and rewarding projects and activities that will engage them and bring out skill sets that will benefit them as they grow. Everything about Code Ninjas is built around fun, which keeps kids coming back. The curriculum is self-paced, but not self-taught; kids get immediate help and encouragement from Code Senseis and fellow ninjas as they advance from white to black belt, on the nine-belt program that makes up Code Ninjas CREATE. Younger kids are able to take part in Code Ninjas JR, and all ages are able to take part in summer camps instilling the problem solving and critical thinking skills into the leaders of the future. To learn more about opportunities for kids near you, visit https://www.codeninjas.com

ABOUT CODE NINJAS:
Founded in 2016, Code Ninjas® is the world's largest and fastest-growing coding franchise, with hundreds of locations across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. At Code Ninjas, kids learn to code while building their own video games. They gain problem solving, critical thinking, and STEM skills in a fun, safe, and inspiring environment. Kids have fun, parents see results®. For more information, visit codeninjas.com.

Media contact: Bailey Feldman, Fishman PR, [email protected] or (847) 945-1300 ext. 267

SOURCE Code Ninjas