Many kids, all around the world, suffer from bullying every day. Since technology has become an active part of our lives, and since the appearance of massive social media networks, this reprehensible attitude and activity has reached new, even more, dangerous levels.
Parents cannot monitor all of their children’s activities on social media, and it is now harder to identify the signs that can actually show us that our kids are being threatened. Therefore, transparent and open communication between parents and children is needed now more than ever before.
We are completely aware of the risks of bullying and cyber-bullying, but we are also completely convinced that with the right tools, kids can do something to fight this and to change the world positively. In this article, we want to tell you the story of a kid who actually decided to make this stop, a kid who took one step forward, a kid who made this world a better place through coding. Today, we are going to talk about Natalie Hampton.
Who is Natalie Hampton and how is she fighting bullying?
Natalie Hampton is a student at Stanford University. During her time as a student in a high school in Los Angeles, she was bullied in a nasty way. For years, she had to sit by herself at lunchtime because no one wanted to share a table with her.
As recent research shows, close to 25% of students in the United States have been bullied, but close to 30% of students admit to bullying others while in school. Natalie, as one of the victims of this horrible system, decided to take one step forward, to raise her hand and to do something about this disgusting reality. It was then that she decided to create SitWithUs, an application that today, has more than 110,000 users, worldwide.
Sit With Us: An App Fighting bullying
Sit With Us is a mobile app, created by Natalie Hampton, designed to fight bullying and promote kindness and inclusion in middle schools and high schools. Natalie’s moto and vision are that “the first step to a warmer and more inclusive community can begin with lunch”.
Sit With Us is an app that makes sure that there is not even one student having lunch alone at school. It organizes school cafeterias, the members of the school, it shows profiles of people within the app, it respects privacy, and most importantly: it assures kids -and their parents- that every single student will have someone to eat with.
Sit With Us promotes kindness, by encouraging children to open their tables to new members that could, somewhere in the near future, become their best friends.
How coding can help kids create a better future
What did Natalie do? She turned a situation that made her suffer and struggle, into a practical, creative, precious solution that is currently helping others, in the same situation she used to be, transform their reality.
But how could Natalie create something, while in high school, that actually solved this issue? Well, first of all, she had enough courage to get the knowledge she needed in order to change her reality. What’s this knowledge? Coding and app development!
The same way as Natalie created this phenomenal solution, there are many kids around the world using all of their creativity to do better, new, amazing things that will make our lives much easier… either while struggling with harsh reality, or while solving some tedious activities we do every day.
Your kids can create their very own app, for whatever they want!
It doesn’t matter if your kids want to create their very own games, if they want to create an app to learn how to play chess, if they want to build an app to help you with some boring activity like organizing your taxes, or if they want to join Natalie Hampton in her activism against bullying.
The important thing is that your kids have the knowledge to think about an idea and turn it into reality. In our online, live coding courses your children will experience an open, supportive space to learn everything they need to do this, and much, much more… Give it a try, they’ll be more than grateful.
