On Monday night, Austin Coding Academy teamed up with Austin Public Library to host a free coding event for local teenagers at the Central Library.

“Glitch: Coding Made Easy” is a 2-hour workshop whose goal is to inspire teens to explore careers in computer programming. We are proud to partner with APL to introduce a creative an in-demand skill for their future careers.

All of the students began the night with no coding experience, but after 120 minutes, all were able to create and deploy their own websites on a topic they were interested in. “We covered HTML, CSS, and JavaScript,” said ACA’s CEO Chris Lofton, who instructed the class. “One student built her website about books and movies she loves. Another student’s website consisted of pictures from all the places she traveled. One even built a site that included instructions on how to play his favorite video game!”


During the course, students worked together to solve different problems they encountered while building their sites. Each of the students was fully engaged through the process of brainstorming, designing, and building their pages while getting feedback and guidance from their instructor. By the end of the night, they each had an active website to take home and continue building on their own.

“We could not be any happier with the event,” said APL Youth Technology Librarian Adrian Perez. “One particular student, Tori, attended the program we had the next night and told me that she always wanted to major in music, but after Glitch and joining a robotics club last month, she wants to go into coding as well – specifically music software. She proudly told us that she already knows what she wants to do with her life – and she’s only 13!”

Keep an eye on Austin Public Library’s events calendar for more Austin Coding Academy library workshops coming down the pipeline. It is ACA’s core mission to make tech careers accessible to everyone, and we think giving teens exposure to the challenges and rewards of coding will illuminate this as a possible path they could take after high school. “We absolutely want to continue planning events with ACA in the future,” said Perez.

If you are interested in having Austin Coding Academy provide coding classes for your group, reach out to us at [email protected].

Want to pursue a career in tech? We’d love to talk about your options:

• Schedule a Q&A session with a member of our admissions team
• Book a tour of one of our campuses
• Learn more about our Javascript Track
• Apply now below!