About us
We are parents, just like you. We founded Educademy because we believe in a better future. We believe that we can educate today’s children and teenagers to become tomorrow’s scientists, engineers, designers and artists. It is a seed we plant today in the hope of tomorrow’s fruits.
It all started in the childhood
I’m Alex Jarosiewicz and I’m a co-founder of Educademy. My story starts 30 years ago when as a still primary school student I received my first computer. It was Commodore C16 - an amazing machine with 16KiB of RAM and a built-in Basic.
I was lucky - C16 wasn’t a very popular model. I soon discovered the availability of games was scarce at best. Together with the computer, my parents bought a very thick book about the built-in Basic with example programs. Out of boredom I started going over page after page, retyping the supplied programs into the editor/interpreter supplied with the C16.
And it was then when the seed of computer programming was planted. Regardless of a computer I had, increasingly I spend more and more time programming it. Fast-forward 15 years and I held an MSc degree in Computer Science.
Why? How?
Today we are lucky parents of two boys aged 8 and 5. “Why” and “How” are two the most frequent words they say. From that curiosity, Educademy was born - to provide all the children with the answer.
Through my journey, I discovered that there is only one true way to learn to code - it has to be experienced. A short example from my 1st Basic book taught me more than 2 pages full of definitions. Tinkering with it until it breaks and then, even more, to get it to work again cannot be replaced with any kind of lecture. Working with computer code opens new paths in the brain. The only way to open them is from the inside.
And learning to code is the only way to provide an answer to the ever more burning question of “how computers work”. The complexity of today’s machines is staggering. Even a phone or a watch can contain billions of transistors. And yet they follow the same rules as my first computer - they run instructions one after another according to strictly defined rules. The computer executes these always the same. It’s the programmer who organises them into an infinite number of applications. When children learn to code, they open this treasured path in their brain. They won’t be able to articulate, how computers work. They’ll know it deep in their hearts nevertheless.
Our mission
Educademy’s mission is simply to create a better world tomorrow. How are we going to achieve that? We are going to change today’s children.
We create a lasting positive outcome. Throughout our camps and courses, we reinforce positive feedback. We set them for success. We select tasks and projects appropriate to the level of young learners. Each and every one of our tutors is equipped with tools to ensure every participant in our courses succeeds. Time after time, the children learn they can do it. The feeling of accomplishment gets rooted deeper and deeper. There is no going back.
On one hand, we strongly believe they’ll continue their Computer Science education. We are certain by the time they reach university age they’ll be ready to take on any subject requiring writing computer code.
On the other, we know they’ll remember the good feeling of working hard with computer programming. This is the path that will remain always open to them. Whatever happens in their lives, whatever happens to their driving passions at the time, they’ll always have this one good choice available.
Our values
Teach by examples, learn by examples
We don’t believe in lectures. The art of computer programming has to be experienced first-hand. Only through performing the actual coding young learners (and old ones too) can learn the real thing. There is no other way
No child left behind
We don’t check boxes, we check up on our learners and their understanding of the lesson. If something needs to be explained again, it will. If the pace of the lesson needs to be adjusted, it will. Whatever it takes to make sure every student understands 100% of what was taught. We do not set firm goals on the amount of material to go over throughout the course. We set firm goals on the understanding of the material presented.
Everyone can and will achieve
There are no bad students, only bad teachers - not in Educademy, of course. 😉 Our method is brilliantly simple and therefore extremely effective. First, we pick up our learners passions. If it’s coding, great. However, it very well may be football. Then we use them to drive the engagement. When the children are listening, we grab our chance to explain. No subject is too difficult when the tutor wants to explain it and the tutee wants to understand.
There is never too much of positive feedback
Success (and failure) is a taught trait. We learn by repetition. It is up to us, what we are teaching. And we, at Educademy, decided to teach success.