Annual Hackathon
Participation in Miami Country Day School…
Initiative Overview:
Miami Country Day School was gracious enough to allow Manifezt participate in its Annual Hackathon, where participants had four hours to code a program to the best of their ability. The students were then given time to deliver a presentation on how their program would be used, and Manifezt contributed volunteers to oversee and judge the competition. The competition fostered creativity, since they had to develop their own ideas, and gave them an opportunity to apply their technical knowledge in a practical way. The students were visibly excited to present their ideas and network with their fellow entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
The creativity on display during the competition was a testimony to some of the local talent among South Florida youth. The runner up winner of the competition was a team of six that created a 3D first person RPG game, and the winner of the competition engineered a Google Chrome extension that allowed the person using the browser to preview the webpage in a small window, before actually going to the site. The parents in attendance were delightfully surprised at what their children were able to create for the Hackathon in such a short amount of time.
The event served as a inspiration to what Manifezt hopes to accomplish in the underprivileged communities we serve. Once we are able to purchase the necessary equipment, we intend to build our own program allowing the brightest students in schools that don’t have the funding Miami Country Day School has, the opportunity to learn coding. Along with arming youth from poverty communities with the education they need to be successful in a rapidly changing society, we will host our own Hackathon – the winner of which will receive corporate sponsorship to develop their idea.
