Innovation is celebrated at MCP as our community embraces our vision to nurture curiosity and embrace the spirit of discovery and exploration
My Coding Place recently announced their 5 year anniversary celebration on October 21, 2023. This event celebrates a major milestone for MCP on its mission to empower families in the Austin area with technology skills and to inspire girls and underrepresented groups to explore coding and embrace innovation.
The founder and studio director had wanted to teach kids to code since she learned to program computers in high school. As a teenager, she thought coding was rewarding because it was hard, and solving problems made her feel smart and confident. She wanted to share her superpower with other kids and teens.
MCP opened in October 2018 as a woman- and minority-owned coding school franchise. After 8 months, they began to operate independently as My Coding Place with a new website http://www.mycodingplace.com. In 2020, they pivoted to virtual instruction using a platform called Whereby that simulated the classroom environment better than Zoom. They partnered with schools, libraries, and employees at Dell to offer STEM classes to Boys and Girls Club, Latinitas, Girlstart, and CARY, Council for At-Risk Youth. After a few years of teaching only coding, the company started offering chess, keyboarding, and technology fundamentals classes for adults and began branding themselves by their initials MCP.
This fall, MCP is bringing coding to Girls' School of Austin, Paragon Prep, Lakeway Activity Center, and Gullett Elementary of AISD. In their studio located in North Central Austin, Scratch and Python are popular introductory languages for ages 7+ while other students pursue chess and keyboarding instruction. Game development is also popular with Roblox and Minecraft coding or game engines such as Godot, Gamemaker and Unity.
“We look forward to introducing more girls and underrepresented groups to coding and exciting topics like digital art, electronic music and AI.” says Amy Pirzada, Founder and Studio Director at MCP. “STEM is an economic equalizer that can break cycles of generational poverty. But girls self-select out of engineering as early as 2nd grade and only 14% of engineers in the US workforce are women.”
The anniversary announcement comes in the wake of many initiatives and accomplishments of the company, including:
Top 3 winners in the ‘For Kids By Kids’ category in Texas Children’s Hospital “Hospital Of The Future” Hackathon where students animated a patient journey
Recipient of Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce Project Rebuild grant
Partnerships with AISD, private schools, community centers and non-profits
Intern training for Travis County Summer Youth Employment Program
Consulting opportunities and education for UT business school students
“We are thrilled to celebrate five years of introducing skills to encourage critical thinking and innovation in the Austin community” says Amy Pirzada. “Thanks to our supporters for getting us to this milestone. We are young and passionate about nurturing curiosity with STEM skills.”
To attend My Coding Place’s 5 year anniversary event, RSVP at