Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who was a part of Virtual CodeDay this February 26-28. It was a wonderful experience to see thousands of students from 25+ countries come together to have fun, learn to code, and submit more than 130 projects.

This was not only one of the best Virtual CodeDays to date, but many students and mentors have told us it’s one of the best online events they’ve ever been to!

What made Virtual CodeDay so special? Read on, or watch our highlights video:

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Helping Musicians Learn to Code with YELLOW and CodeVA!

Musicians have long been a fixture at CodeDay, but the path to contribute technically has never been clear… until this season!

This season, the amazing folks at YELLOW and CodeVA helped teach more than 300 students to code music using Python and EarSketch at the start of CodeDay.

Some students used this knowledge to create complex songs as their final projects. Others worked with a team to turn them into rhythm games. Some even teamed up to release games with fully-featured soundtracks! Wow!

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Electronics Projects Galore With Kits from Digi-Key!

Digital projects are great, but some students are driven to create something in the real-world. And for this Virtual CodeDay, thanks to Digi-Key’s support, we were able to provide 125 students with beginner electronics kits and training.

Although most students were beginners, some of the projects these students took on were surprisingly complex! From rover simulators to music lighting, the projects amazed our teams and judges. Don’t take my word for it, check out our first electronics project to win Best in Show below:

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Improvements to Mentors and Activities Led to 10x More Student Engagement

Virtual CodeDay isn’t just about work. It’s about becoming part of a community that loves using code to make creative projects. But becoming part of a new community can be scary (especially if you don’t yet think of yourself as a coder). It’s especially difficult to feel comfortable in an online community, working with professional programmers to create your projects!

Since our first Virtual CodeDay in March 2020, we’ve been working hard to counteract this. I’m proud to say that this Virtual CodeDay doubled last event’s student engagement. In total, since that first event, engagement levels have increased almost 10x!

We couldn’t have done this without support from our partners, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, T-Mobile, State Farm, and Quizlet. They deserve so many thanks for helping us host fun activities like the Big Data Challenge and providing amazing mentors and judges for the students.

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We’re so thrilled with how this event went, but we also can’t wait until the next one — June 11-13.

If you’re interested in sponsoring the next event and reaching thousands of talented programmers early in their career, please reach out to team@codeday.org