WNC’s Community-Oriented Coding Camp
They’re in a vintage movie theater, but the screens they’re focused on aren’t silver. Situated among rows of velvet seating, these students are completely absorbed in their computers. Peals of laughter and outbursts of “Cool!” punctuate busy click-clacking. Eager questions meet enthusiastic answers throughout. The room’s energy hums with new possibilities, and for good reason: This is the Swift App School. These teens are the next generation of tech trailblazers.
In just one week, they’ve picked up enough code to program their own apps, and thanks to the interface they’re using, they’ve watched these apps come to life in real time. “You can pretty much create anything you want,” an 8th grade Swift App School participant explains, “[Coding is] like a superpower. You can change the future.”
Which is exactly what the organization’s founders, Charles Long and Bob Williams, want participants to do. By teaching middle and high school students how to code in week-long Swift App School summer camps, they hope to empower WNC teens — especially those who are disadvantaged — to take charge of their futures and shape the technology of tomorrow.
Since 2020, Long and Williams have been working with the Hatch Innovation Hub to get their camp up, running, and growing. The vintage movie theater mentioned earlier? That’s space Hatch repurposed into an event venue entrepreneurs can rent out. The mission to empower WNC teens with code? That’s exactly what the Hatch Pressure Test program and volunteer mentors have been helping these founders accomplish.
A Swift Stroke of Inspiration
Long and Williams formed this mission — and their friendship — years ago. They met in 2003 at the Asheville School, where Long worked as a technology facilitator and Williams as the associate director of communications. The two had complementary skill sets, were both passionate about education, and shared a love for software development, so they teamed up quite a bit. When Apple released its easy-to-learn programming language — Swift — in 2014, they seized the opportunity.
“I noticed I could teach Swift to kids in a couple of weeks,” Long remarked. This prompted Williams to suggest they do so through a summer camp. The two approached Mr. James Cowan — VP of the Stonecutter foundation and Asheville School alumnus — for funding. He loved the idea, and he granted the school $40,000 for Mac laptops that could be used to launch their initiative.
With these laptops and the help of Jack Hamilton, a former student who was then studying computer science at Georgia Tech, Long and Williams opened their camp in 2015. They had 11 campers during this first session, most of whom were boys. Over the next four years, the program grew in popularity until in 2019, 45 teens enrolled. Half of the students in this cohort were girls, signaling a shift that Long and Williams celebrated.
Centering Diversity and Empowerment
“Both of us want to see more young women take part in coding,” Williams explained. “At the first Apple conference we attended, [almost] everyone looked like me. Not many looked like Charles at all. We wanted to change that.” Promoting diversity in tech has always been at the heart of Long and Williams’s vision for their program, a vision which was almost thwarted by the pandemic and a change in The Asheville School’s leadership in 2020.
Rather than give up on what they’d built, Long and Williams decided they would run their camp on their own. They established their LLC, The Swift App School, then held a scaled-back, virtual version of the program. This experience taught them two things: First, there was real opportunity to expand their impact digitally. Second, they needed some help, both in the form of business development and in the form of funding.
Help from Hatch Innovation Hub
This led them to the Hatch Innovation Hub, the “home for entrepreneurship in Western North Carolina.” Hatch could offer The Swift App School founders a large event space for an in-person camp and guidance in developing a sustainable, scalable business model. Mr. Cowan and his wife, Myra were eager to continue supporting Long and Williams, and they were especially keen to do so by investing in services from a local non-profit they also graciously support: Hatch!
“There was a lot of synergy, and things just started happening. We felt like we were in the right place at the right time,” said the Swift App School founders. Mr. Cowan donated the funds they needed to rent Hatch’s event space and take part in its Pressure Test program. This program is geared towards start-ups or businesses in revenue that need assistance in scaling their operations. It’s a “proven, 90-day sprint with experienced Hatch mentors to discover and walk the path of scalability together,” explains Mike Baer, the leader of Hatch’s programming team.
Post Pressure Test: Stronger and More Scalable
Pressure Test participants draft business models in alignment with their goals, then place those models under intensive scrutiny to identify potential impediments to growth. “Anyone who wants to start a business would very much benefit from the Pressure Test, Long and Williams remarked. “It helped us figure out a realistic way to build our company to scale.”
One realization the Swift App School founders had during this experience was that adult instructors with strong coding skills would be expensive to hire and difficult to retain. Instead, Long and Williams decided to fill their need for teachers by employing graduates of the camp as technical assistants. This TA incubator system would keep them from having to compete with the Ubers or Dropboxes of the world for talent. It would also give students paid work experience they could use to jumpstart their careers. Win-win.
In addition to identifying strategies for scaling sustainably, Long and Williams determined how they could continue serving underprivileged youth. They made plans to fundraise through Hatch for scholarships, and they started forming partnerships with organizations such as My Daddy Taught Me That and Young Eisner Scholars to reach more teens in need.
It Takes a Village…
“These guys were born to be teachers,” Mr. Cowan remarked about The Swift App School founders. It’s true. The characteristics that make Long and Williams exceptional teachers are the same that make them phenomenal business owners: They’re driven, community-oriented, adaptable, persistent, excellent communicators, and willing to ask for help.
In today’s world, the importance of that last quality often gets overlooked. But if there’s one thing nurturing students and building businesses have in common, it’s this: They both take a village. Hatch is honored to be counted among the people and organizations that make up The Swift App School’s support system.
Long and Williams look forward to developing YouTube and Teachable content, building their own educational app, and continuing to run their camps, both at KidSense in Rutherfordton and in Hatch’s event space. If you know a teen that might be interested in enrolling, you can learn more by visiting the camp’s website, SwiftAppSchool.com.
Hatch Innovation Hub: Committed to WNC Entrepreneurship
The Hatch Innovation Hub stands ready to support aspiring entrepreneurs throughout Western North Carolina. From its headquarters in downtown Asheville, Hatch offers affordable space, world class programs, experienced mentors, and access to capital. If you’re an entrepreneur, you can learn more about Hatch’s services and resources at HatchInnovationHub.org. If you’re interested in helping Hatch promote economic growth in WNC through entrepreneurship, contact us to find out how you can get involved with the work we do, or donate.