At Hatch, our goal is to make coding more accessible and fun to learn for the next generation. To reach our goal, our passionate coaches are a major part of the equation. We love to learn about and share their backstories. Many of our coaches live and breath coding. They work with code every day and are able to relay their expertise and real world experience to Hatch students to spark their curiosity.

In today’s post, we speak with Hatch coach, Matt Costin, about his coding background, his experience at Hatch Canada, and why learning to code is essential.

So, Matt, what is your background in coding? Did you learn how to code when you were a kid?

My coding background comes from my time in university studying digital media. In that program we used code in creative ways to produce art. This was my first experience with coding as I had mostly worked with animation growing up, and never ventured into code.

Very cool! Yes, many people think coding is only part of the tech world but coding is part of so many different careers and industries. What is your coding language of choice?

My coding language of choice is processing/javascript. I used it in school to program robots, and since coming to Hatch I have become more reliant on it.

At Hatch we love to bring on passionate coaches like yourself. How did you find Hatch Canada?

I found Hatch from a friend who recommended me to the position. I was one of the first coach hires that the company had.

We’d love to send your friend a thank you - you’re a great asset to our team! Can you tell us what your favourite part about working as a coach at Hatch Canada?

My favourite part of working at Hatch is when I help students expand on their creative ideas. Coding is a medium just like painting or sculpting and I love to see it when a student begins to realize that and really starts to delve into what they can make with code.

That is special, isn’t it?! Why do you think learning to code is important?

Learning to code is important because it will greatly help with computer literacy moving forward. Understanding how your computer and online environment work can really help when needing to fix or change something. Even for something like gaming, knowing how to code can help users modify and change their experience.

So with coding you can literally change the game! Wow. Have you ever seen a child experience a moment where they get excited about coding?

I have seen it many times. Usually it happens once something just clicked. Once they understand how something works they tend to really get into it at that point. They start to experiment, they start to customize, and they start to improve on what they just learned.

One of my favourite examples of this is when I had a student who was working towards building a game. He was working through learning all the components needed to create a simple game. He eventually stumbled across a project that helped him learn to move objects using mathematical formulas. This excited him more than any other aspect and led to him changing his whole project idea to focus primarily on this aspect.

We love to hear things like that, coding is all about adaptation. The more you learn how to code, the more possibilities for innovation arise.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, Matt! We can’t wait to to see who you inspire next at Hatch!

Interested in becoming a Hatch Coach? Want to get your child involved in the exciting world of coding and programming? Get started today by reading about our amazing camps. Please email us at hatch@hatchcanada.com with any questions!