FCS News

While many students are trying to enjoy their last few weeks of summer freedom, some of Halifax’s newest residents are gathering in a computer lab at Dalhousie University.

The Syrian Student Society, in partnership with the Faculty of Computer Science, is offering a free coding camp to Syrians interested in attending university.

The week-long camp is giving students the opportunity to learn how to build basic websites using HTML, CSS and Javascript. Camp organizers hope the experience will give newcomers a taste of university life, and an idea of how a degree in computer science could benefit them in the future.

“We wanted to do something for Syrians, and me coming from a computer science background, we also wanted to attract people to computer science,” said Yaser Alkayale, president of the Syrian Student Society and university innovation fellow.

Alkayale said he wasn’t sure how many people would show up when the camp started on Monday, but was pleased to see upwards of 25 people on the first day, with more trickling in throughout the week.

“We’ve actually invited everyone, whoever’s Syrian that wants to come and learn about coding and programming. Most people are around 20 years of age, but we have a few who are over 50 and we have a few who are 13, 14,” he said.

Most of the students are new to Canada and are still in the early stages of learning to speak English. While the camp is taught in both English and Arabic, computer language it its own entity.

“It is great for the newcomers because you don’t need English, per se, to learn all the coding languages,” said Alkayale.

Read the full story on Global News.