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Ask HN: Help me help my cousin learn to program
This is an unusual thing to do, but I'm stumped, and I'd love help from folks who've had experience helping to mentor new developers.
My 18 year old cousin has just immigrated from Iran to Canada. He's quite smart: in Iran he was one of the finalists for the country's Physics Olympiad team, and was academically very strong. However he's unable to start college in Canada until next year, and wants to spend the time between now and then learning how to program.
Ideally I think he'd do that in a social setting so that he can also practice his English and make friends. I've already recommended things like Codecademy, Treehouse, and Udacity, but I think he really wants a more structured and social learning experience than those services can offer.
Unfortunately he needs to stay near his mother in Oakville, ON, and can't make it into Toronto on a daily basis. There really aren't any decent programming classes near Oakville or Mississauga. I've spent lots of time thinking about it, but I'm really not sure how to best help or mentor him.
So I'm reaching out to HN: does anyone have much experience with anything similar? If so, what have you learnt and what would you recommend?
- dtournemille 12y agoThe GO Train goes straight into Toronto daily from Mississauga and Oakville, but I'm assuming he can't travel for a reason not related to access to transportation. If online courses are not what he's seeking, then your options are really starting to narrow. Of course, there is still one venue and source of information out there that could prove useful: Your local library. They have computers, programming books, and free Internet access. And people. http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/residents/library http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/residents/library http://www.opl.on.ca/ http://www.opl.on.ca/ Your friend could also start up his own Meetup group, inviting others in a similar situation to join him at the local library.
- smt88 12y agoDisclaimer: I have no expertise in this. I've seen some really glowing descriptions of coding with a mentor. It's not social the same way a class is, but having something watching/reviewing your progress and giving you pointers is vastly superior to googling things. The problem is money. If he has the money, he could post on craigslist to see if any nearby coders would be willing to mentor him and occasionally sit down and watch him code. If he doesn't have the money, I don't have any other ideas.