In a warm and energetic classroom, seniors Nishchay Jaiswal, Arnav Shah, Sriya Sthanikam and Sanaa Gada draw excitedly on whiteboards as they teach a group of students from the Kenya countryside. As members of the non-profit organization CS4ALL, the seniors traveled across the world to bring the gift of programming to underprivileged students from the Kenya countryside.
Co-founders Jaiswal and Shah created CS4ALL in 2023, yet, the idea behind CS4ALL started much earlier. Throughout middle school, Jaiswal ran a computer science club at William Faria Elementary School, and he wanted to expand its impact.
“In junior year, I realized we were running a CS club at one elementary school, so I asked myself why not do it at others?’” Jaiswal said.
During Shah and Jaiswal’s junior year, they established CS4ALL, which now partners with local elementary schools such as Dilworth Elementary School. However, the two seniors wanted to extend their influence further beyond the borders of the United States and across the ocean, to Maralal, Kenya.
This project, known as CS4AFRICA, is a partnership with the Asante Africa Foundation. Asante Africa offered CS4ALL the chance to go global — one that the seniors eagerly took.
“Asante Africa’s theme this year was digital literacy,” Shah said. “That fits really well with CS4ALL’s mantra. I pitched the idea to the CEO by email, and she thought our idea sounded interesting and wanted to talk more.”
Once Erna Grasz, the CEO of CS4AFRICA, accepted the idea, CS4AFRICA was officially in action. Taking place from Aug. 4 to 9, CS4ALL ran a 5-day bootcamp. They taught a variety of topics including Scratch, Python and other basic computer fundamentals. They not only instructed students, but passed their knowledge onto teachers to increase the impact they left behind.
The students, some arriving after multiple hours on buses, gathered and met with their bootcamp instructors. Despite the socioeconomic, language and ethnic differences, the students quickly bonded with their teachers.
“Our first experience with them was playing basketball,” Shah said. “It completely removes all the potential tension that there could have been. They were nervous at first, but we did our best to incorporate them into everything, and it was really fun.”
The bond between student and teacher only continued to grow. Each morning, the boot camp began with energizers, consisting of dancing, musical chairs and more. It started each lesson with high energy and engagement, setting the beat for the rest of the day.
“I taught them games like musical chairs and charades,” Gada said. “I wanted to show them that education is so much more than reading a textbook. The best way to learn a new concept is if you’re having fun doing it, and it’s the teacher’s responsibility to make a new concept feel approachable.”
CS4ALL also structured competitions to encourage creativity in their students. On the last day of the bootcamp, each student presented their project to the board members of Asante Africa.
“They enjoyed working in teams and even wanted to win the competitions we gave them,” Sthanikam said.
CS4ALL hopes to continue their global outreach and impact, even after Shah and Jaiswal graduate and hand off their duties.
“We are looking to other organizations, so that we can run this a second year in a row,” Shah said. “We hope to expand to multiple countries.”
