Inventive first grader Zora Ball took technology into her own hands, becoming the youngest person to create a full-version mobile game application. Ball, who attends Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School, located in West Philadelphia, presented her creation at University of Pennsylvania’s “Bootstrap Expo,” TheGrio reported.
The 7-year-old app developer built the game using a programming language called “Bootstrap” that teaches kids age 12 to 16 how to understand complex math. The pint-sized programmer learned the tricks of the trade at Harambee’s 48-week after-school program, STEMnasium Learning Academy.
When child prodigy Zora Ball looks back at her formative years, she’ll remember the first programming app she created. In 2013 at just 7 years old, Ball became the youngest program developer in the world after she created a full-version mobile game application.
A student at West Philadelphia’s Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School, Ball created the video game during an after school program that focuses on introducing students to STEM education. “I am proud of all of my students. Their dedication to this program is phenomenal, and they come to class every Saturday, including holiday breaks,” said Tariq Al-Nasir, science teacher and founder of the STEMnasium program, to the Philadelphia Tribune. “Their dedication to this program is phenomenal, and they come to class every Saturday, including holiday breaks.” After being taught a simpler way of coding, Ball used her new found skills to create to program her first game, Vampire Diamonds. According to an article published in Jezebel, Ball was asked to recreate the program after people speculated it wasn’t her work. Like the BlackGirlMagic she is, Ball recreated the program, instantly silencing the haters.