Student Story #3: Meet Max


Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Max, and I’m 13 years-old. I like to play sports and read, most of the time. I watch sports too, like football and soccer. Oh, and I play video games.  

How did you first get into tech?

When I was in first grade my teacher saw that I enjoyed STEM and suggested I do these block coding worksheets. I got really into them, so when I went home my dad and I searched online for more problems to do. It just kept growing and growing from there and eventually led me to this, Kinet-X.

What projects have you done in tech so far?

Not a lot. I took some tech courses in school, and we built some simple things. The coolest thing so far was building a robot with my friends. We designed it to follow a color-coded track, and it was geared up with a sensor, so it would respond according to whatever color it was currently on. Designing that robot was definitely an upgrade from the lego robot kits you do when you’re younger.  

Why Kinet-X?

Well, my dad found it for me - not really sure how. He showed me the website to see if I was interested, and as I read through it I found myself getting more and more hooked. I decided to just go for it and apply, and well, here I am now.  

What has been your favorite part of this program so far?

I really enjoyed soldering. Engineering as a whole has been really fun. I like the fact that we’re actually doing something that applies in the real work. I mean, it’s the basics, but it's the basis of circuit boards throughout all of tech.  

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned coding with Adam?

I didn’t know any HTML or CSS or JavaScript coming in. And now, just a week in, I have a pretty solid base of knowledge. Enough to code a simple website, at least.

What about during engineering with Chauncey?

The soldering, like I said. It’s all that hands-on application where you learn stuff that’s useful in the real world. Honestly, it’s just exciting.

What’s the hardest part of coding/engineering? How do you overcome these challenges?

Biggest challenge was probably understanding some of the math behind everything. But the mentors are always eager to help and after some help from them, I was able to get through it.  

What goals do you have in tech?

Up until now, all the projects I’ve done so far in tech haven’t been fully mine. They’re all school assignments and stuff like that. What I want to do is develop something completely my own: design my own robot, then program it do something that’s genuinely mine.

How is Kinet-X helping you achieve them?

Kinet-X has expanded my knowledge and given me the tools to achieve my goals. Now I can actually engineer a complex robot with various functions completely on my own. And then code those functions too. That wasn’t possible until I attended this program.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

An engineer. If you couldn’t already tell.

Profiles, Student LifeAllan Wang