

Building a Community for High Schoolers Who Code - zachlatta
https://www.facebookstories.com/stories/112524/hs-hackers

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raphaelrk
As a member of this group, I have to say it's one of the best communities I've
ever been in, for a lot of reasons.

1) Inspiration. From members winning Thiel fellowships to members asking where
they can begin, you feel a sense of motivation. The scholarship present in the
group is astounding. The OP, Zach Latta, started a nonprofit that helps people
start programming clubs. If he can do that, what's stopping me from starting a
programming club at my high school? In fact, the group's inspired me to do a
lot of things I never would've tried if I hadn't joined- attending a
hackathon, founding a programming club, making myself a website, and much
more.

2) The network. Members are always posting about hackathons and meetups. Lots
of the members know each other, and I probably have mutual friends with most
of the members. Along with that, I think the caliber of the members is
unrivaled in a group of its size. There are innovators and entrepreneurs,
designers and coders (none of those mutually exclusive), and all around
amazing teens. Being able to talk with them is incredible. Not only are there
amazing teens in its membership, but industry leaders. Some big names include
Sam Altman and Alexis Ohanian. Having their profile show up in the group sends
tingles down your spine. As high schoolers, sometimes we hear cheesy lines
like "you could be sitting next to the next Bill Gates." In this group, not
only are you posting next to the next Bill Gates, but the real one too.

3) Quality posts. I suppose after all the fawning I've done so far this goes
without saying but the posts are great. As in any group there can be argument
and incivility, but the quality of that group in my view is almost as good as
that of Hacker News. (That might be because lots of the membership reads
Hacker News). The posts can vary in topic from hackathons to new tech, from
free namecheap coupons to members' projects, but one thing is consistent: they
show how great a community of high schoolers can be. No lord of the flies or
Brave New World genius island, no. Its unparalleled, and a wonderful thing to
be a part of.

If you're a high school student and you're not already in it, join.

Disclaimer: I might have cloudy vision on some aspects. The community's not
perfect but for one made up of 1800 high schoolers and counting, it's
exceptional in every aspect.

~~~
aroman
Wow — thank you so much for sharing that. I'm really glad the community has
been so valuable to you. It's been great to have you, Raphael :)

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prezjordan
Really, really cool to see the hackathon scene develop like this - due to
nothing other than the extreme dedication and hard work of a select few.

I'm still not exactly sold that hackathons are the best way to learn, but
they're certainly not the worst. Great to see more and more people find safe
environments like this to play around with different tech and, equally
importantly, network with others.

Congrats on building such a cool community, it's all very inspiring.

~~~
RaphiePS
(shoutout to Dave Fontenot in particular)

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brimtown
Good call on ditching the extended pregnancy metaphor.

Previous post:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7970809](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7970809)

~~~
aroman
Hah, in retrospect, I agree. I guess I couldn't resist the pun.

That change was actually made by the editor at Facebook, who did an excellent
job of helping condense my original post and adapting it for a wider audience.
I also added in the bit about "what are hackers and hackathons?":

 _If the words “hacker” and “hackathon” evoke mental images of scary-looking
criminals breaking into computers, I can assure you we 're nothing like that.
Hackers, in the original spirit of the term, are programmers and designers who
use technology to build things — not destroy things. Hackathons are events
where hackers of all kinds come together to collaborate on new projects and
compete for prizes, often on college campuses._

~~~
jmgrosen
You should try some "real" hacking some time! That is, the kind the scary-
looking criminals do, but for good (or simply fun). CTFs are probably the best
way to get started -- check out PicoCTF, one specifically for high schoolers.
The starting challenges might be easy for someone with programming knowledge,
but the higher-pointed ones require some real domain-specific knowledge ;)

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aarohmankad
Find the group here:
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/PennAppsHS/?fref=nf](https://www.facebook.com/groups/PennAppsHS/?fref=nf)

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jmgrosen
Of course, there are those of us that don't use Facebook...

...but I guess we're in the minority :) Cool effort, in any case. I'd
definitely join if I used FB.

~~~
krrishd
I'm a part of the group, and I barely ever touched Facebook prior to joining.
Now pretty much my whole News Feed reads like a more personal HN.

Either way, HS Hackers has a ton of meetups, so far in NYC, Philly, and soon
SF: [http://hshackers.org](http://hshackers.org) and
[http://nyc.hshackers.org](http://nyc.hshackers.org)

~~~
jmgrosen
Eh, I suppose I could do that; I did have a Facebook account for a couple
years, but I deactivated it a couple months ago, mainly over privacy
concerns[0]. I could create a new account specifically for this, but I'd be
worried that I'd accidentally leave myself logged in and be tracked around the
net. (Do I sound a bit paranoid yet? Sorry about that.)

Unfortunately, NYC and Philly are nowhere near me, and SF is still an
impractical distance away. LA might be doable!

[0] I really do have to recommend Julia Angwin's excellent book _Dragnet
Nation_ : [http://www.amazon.com/Dragnet-Nation-Security-Relentless-
Sur...](http://www.amazon.com/Dragnet-Nation-Security-Relentless-
Surveillance/dp/0805098070) It's very mind-boggling how much we are tracked by
online entities (the book mostly covers companies, not the government), and
after reading that book, I took some steps to protect myself from them. (My
paranoia is justified! I think...)

~~~
krrishd
Your paranoia is very justified, I actually have a friend who built a
completely fake identity specifically to join FB and be part of the group, he
uses Tor and everything.

Meetup-wise, it won't be long before something is organized in LA, a lot of
the members are actually based in LA (including the current admin).

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viclou
HS Hackers has taken over my life -- in a good way. ♥

