The Mayor Crombie Visit to Mississauga Code Club
As a community-based group working to promote STEM education, Mississauga Code Club (MCC) has been growing ever since we started back in 2015. The group has crossed many milestones and achieved many goals over the past few years. Enrollment exceeded 500 young learners, Course offering has expanded, and partnerships were developed with other community organizations.
Our most recent milestone was August 8th 2019, when we held our Open House and Mississauga Mayor Visited our site.We invited the Mayor of Mississauga, Bonnie Crombie to visit MCC labs. The goal of this visit was to show case what we really do at MCC and to spread awareness of MCC initiatives to promote coding and robotic education around the city of Mississauga.
During her visit, the Mayor not only visited our labs, but she even participated, learned, and got engaged with young learners. During the Java programming class, Mayor Crombie went around and she tried the programs and applications developed by MCC students. After this she visited the Coding Playground lab. The Mayor actually learned how to program a couple of small robots and circuits.
We really wanted to make this event a community gathering because we believe that education should be a community activity; where people from different backgrounds and age groups come together and learn from each other. Therefore, we invited many of our students and their families to join us for the Open House portion of this event. We also welcomed members of the community who wanted to see and learn a bout Mississauga Code Club and its impact on children and youth in Mississauga.
Summer Program students were excited to showcase their creative projects including applications, programs and robots. Special display was organized for the project so the young creators and developers have the opportunity to talk to people visiting the display about their work.
Afterwards we held a ceremony where we heard a motivational and inspiring speech by our very own student, and now instructor -Tyson Thompson. Following this,we had the privilege along with all of MCC students, parents and guests to hear a wonderful speech by our Mayor. Mrs. Crombie. The Mayor spoke about the value MCC work in bridging existing gaps in school curriculum, and preparing students for promising future in today’s digital world. She also highlighted how technology is integrated in various parts of the urban life in Mississauga, and introduced Smart City Plans in Mississauga.
Afterwards, the mayor had the opportunity to walk around the display tables and projects and interacted with more of our students. During this time we had other student speeches from Layan, Amma, and Irene about how MCC learning experiences is helping them and changing their lives.
To conclude, we want to take this opportunity and thank again the Mayor of Mississauga and her team, Palestine House, parents, as well as all our staff, volunteers, and students for not only making this event possible but a very special one. Thank you all for being part of the amazing MCC family!