New & Newsworthy
12/12/23- As we wrap up 2023, we express appreciation to the children who have worked so hard to learn new skills, as well as to our many volunteers, and to our partners at the Orange County Rescue Mission where we volunteered this fall.
7/15/23- Congratulations to our 2023-24 Board. We are excited for the work ahead!
1/1/23- Happy New Year! 2022 was an incredible year for Code Open Sesame! Thank you, as always, to our incredible volunteers. We are so excited for the year ahead!
11/21/22 - In this season of gratitude, we are thankful for the opportunity to teach and connect. We are thankful for all the volunteers who share their time and skills. And we appreciate the shelters who make it possible for us to do what we do.
7/22/2022 - We are grateful for our dedicated volunteers who show up and make learning fun!
10/13/21 - It is so good to be teaching in person again. We are grateful to all of our volunteers, and to the staff and families at the shelters where we get to teach.
8/24/21 - Congratulations to our new 2021-2022 Board! And a warm thank you to all of our volunteers who are joining us as we start our fourth year! We are excited for the great work that we can do together.
9/1/20 - Back to School, everybody! The coronavirus has changed how we are helping at-risk children in our community. We’ve gone online to do remote tutoring during the pandemic. It isn’t our first choice, for sure, but we are grateful that we are still able to work with some of the students who we first met in person at the domestic violence shelters and homeless shelters where we teach. Thank you, Inspiring Young Heroes, for creating this video about our work.
8/7/20 - We are humbled and grateful to be named “20 Under 20: Young Innovators Who Are Already Changing the World” by Diversity In Action magazine. Check out their feature story here.
4/6/2020 - Thank you to L.A. Parent for highlighting our work and encouraging other young people to get involved!
1/15/20- On stands now! Thank you to Girls Life Magazine for featuring our work in their December/January 2020 issue. Let’s make this our best year yet! Happy new year, world!
6/3/20 - Thank you, Teen Influential, for featuring us in your May/June issue. We are grateful for all this publicity that shines a bright light on the need to help young people in need gain computer literacy and coding skills.
12/25/2019 - Thank you to the Orange County Register for highlighting our work in their Christmas Day coverage!
11/11/19 - Thank you to the American Legion Auxiliary for presenting us with their Good Deed Award. We are truly honored!
10/1/19 - We have just accepted an invitation to teach at next month’s Ask A Scientist Night, sponsored by the Orange County Science & Engineering Fair and the Girl Scouts of Orange County. “A Girl Scout is ready to help out wherever she is needed. Willingness to serve is not enough; you must know how to do the job well.” Code Open Sesame volunteers are looking forward to showing these girl scouts how computer programming can prepare them to serve well in many ways.
9/17/19 - Thank you, Mother Nature News, for the kind shout-out today!
9/16/19 - We have some amazing news to share! The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes celebrates inspiring, public-spirited young people from across the U.S. and Canada who have made a significant positive difference to people and the environment. This year, the prize organizers decided to “double down on goodness” by doubling the Barron Prize from $5,000 to $10,000 to spark a wave of goodness! And today they announced that we are 2019 winners! Read more at https://barronprize.org/. In November, they will film us for their series of short Inspiring Young Heroes videos. We are so grateful for their support, and thrilled to be joining the Young Heroes family. ♥
8/21/19 - Thank you to Orange Coast Magazine for featuring Open Sesame Coding for Kids in their August issue. We sure appreciate the support!
University High School students Katherine McPhie, 17, left, and Milan Narula, 16, were separately volunteering at homeless shelters when they realized disadvantaged children might be left behind technologically. Last year, they joined to create Open Sesame Coding for Kids, an award-winning service organization that recruits and trains high school and college students to teach computer skills to underserved children in homeless and domestic violence shelters. “We really want these kids to feel like they have options,” Katherine says. “Just to have their confidence grow in feeling like they can do this … that’s really empowering.”
35
Organizations that partner with Open Sesame to recruit volunteers
130
Growing number of volunteers, from 12 schools
950
Hours of coding instruction provided to children so far
9
Shelters across six O.C. cities that receive coding and computer skills clinics
27,000
Homeless schoolchildren in Orange County
5/6/19 - We won!!! Thank you, Ashoka, for awarding us $1,000 and an all-expense paid trip to the two-day intensive Changemaker Movement Building Workshop hosted by General Motors in Detroit. What an amazing weekend!
@ashokachangemakers @STEM4changemaking #LeadYoung
4/5/19 - We are thrilled to announce that General Motors and Ashoka have selected us as a 2019 STEM for Changemaking Challenge Winner! We will be attending the GM STEM for Changemaking Summit in Detroit on May 2-4, and we couldn’t be more excited!
3/29/2019 - Wonderful news! Today the Orange County Women Lawyers Association selected us to win their 2019 Philanthropy Award. This generous award in the amount of $1,868 will allow us to purchase much needed computer equipment as we expand to more homeless and domestic violence shelters to help more children in need in Orange County. Thank you, OCWLA, for this amazing support. ♥
3/20/2019 - Thank you, Irvine Weekly, for covering our work. “Open Sesame,” the immortal words of Ali Baba, is a phrase frequently used to represent the secret code to open any door. In Irvine, two high schoolers have taken this common phrase to represent their own kind of code, a code that could help underprivileged children push their way out of poverty and homelessness, and open the door to a future of their own design. Their code, however, is a bit more complex than a couple of magic words. Keep reading. ♥
3/6/2019 - Last month we put out a request on Nextdoor.com for used computers. Thank you to everyone who responded so generously! In a true win-win, our volunteers picked up and refurbished a variety of electronics that we have already started using during our coding workshops. As Code Open Sesame grows, we continue to need both laptop and desktop computers, so please contact us if you have any old electronics you would like to donate. Thank you! ♥
Cheryl Blodgell’s donation of her silver laptop, pictured above, makes it possible for us to pair students and volunteers one-on-one so that students can learn to code at their own pace.
We have already begun putting donations such as Howard Brooke’s silver chromebook, pictured above, to good use during our coding workshops at local shelters.
2/26/19 - We are honored to be today’s Daily Point of Light! Thank you, Point of Light Foundation, for shining a light on Code Open Sesame’s efforts to serve and teach children who are homeless.
2/23/19 - When the Youth Leadership Council asked us to help our youngest community members at today’s Science Tech Engineering Art Math Festival, we were all over it! Pretend City knows how to throw a party — thanks for having us!
2/8/19 - Thank you, Orange County Catholic, for helping us spread the word about helping in homeless and domestic violence shelters!
2/1/19 - On behalf of the California State Assembly, Assemblyman Steven Choi recognized Open Sesame Coding for Kids for its work helping disadvantaged children in California. Dr. Choi and his senior policy advisor, Ms. Carrie O’Malley, presented the award during an Open Sesame Coding for Kids computer skills clinic at a temporary shelter in Garden Grove this evening.
1/2/19 - We are thrilled to announce that the GO Campaign has awarded a generous $2700 grant to Open Sesame Coding for Kids to continue its work bringing coding to disadvantaged children throughout Orange County. What a wonderful start to the new year! Congratulations to Milan and Katherine who have been named “Local Heroes” with GO for 2019.
12/31/18 - Wow! We just found out that we are on this year’s list of Top 100 Most Influential People in Orange County. What an honor! We are humbled and grateful. Thank you to everyone who has supported our mission to serve children in need in our community by teaching coding at homeless and domestic violence shelters.
