JamCoders summer camp, a resounding success
Published:Wednesday | August 27, 2025 | 12:05 AMKeisha Hill/Senior Gleaner Writer
“It was a new experience interacting with my peers,” said Zephan Myers, a student at the Wolmer’s Boys School, of his experience attending the third staging of the month-long JamCoders annual summer camp.
Myers was among a group of students from 3rd through to 5th form who were selected from various high schools across Jamaica, to participate in the annual summer camp on algorithms and programming.
“I was never met with disregard or ridicule. It was a fun and wonderful experience; and I am grateful, and blessed to have been chosen to be here,” Myers said.
The JamCoders summer camp has taught close to 200 students from across Jamaica in the past four summers. The camp was first launched on the UWI Mona campus in Kingston, in Summer 2022.
“I felt welcomed, clicked and bonded with everyone. The information, lectures and labs were amazing. On the first day, I finished quickly, but as the days followed it was different and became challenging. But I came with the mindset that it would not be easy,” said Oksana Smith, student at the Immaculate Conception High School.
JamCoders was initially conceived by Jamar McNaughton, more popularly known as Chronixx, Jamaican reggae artiste. The Chronixx team after reading about the AddisCoder programme in Ethiopia, then made a generous founding donation to support creation of the programme through his Caring Hands of Rastafari (CHOR) Foundation.
McNaughton who was present at the closing ceremony of the camp, that also recognised the outstanding efforts of the teaching assistants and chaperones, encouraged the students to be positive and pursue their dreams with alacrity.
“Do not undermine yourselves. Technology and the development of artificial intelligence cannot think like us. AI learns and adapts to programming that is conceived by the mind. We are more intelligent than the machines, so do not allow the concept of AI to cloud your understanding. We are the power that advances this phenomenon,” he said.
FULLY RESIDENTIAL
The Summer Camp is coordinated by The UWI Mona’s Dr Daniel Fokum, senior lecturer in computer science in the Department of Computing in the Faculty of Science and Technology and Professor Jelani Nelson, professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, and founder of AddisCoder, Inc.
Dr Fokum said the JamCoders summer camp is really to get students who have never programmed before to teach them how to do so. He further explained that the camp is fully residential and accommodates students from across the island. All students are accommodated on the UWI Mona Campus.
“Overall, the camp was a major success. We are grateful to our local sponsors American Friends of Jamaica, and all the teaching assistants and chaperones who helped to ensure the smooth running of the camp. What is exciting for us is that as soon as the camp session is closed, students start applying for the next session. This indicates the impact that the camp is having on the students each year,” Dr Fokum said.
The students participated in two hour-long lectures in the morning and afternoons and for three hours each in the morning and afternoon, they worked on programming tasks.
The programme was modelled on AddisCoder, a programme that Professor Nelson founded in Ethiopia, which has been co-organised with the Meles Zenawi Foundation and supported by the Ethiopian government.
Many of the programme’s alumni have gone on to do PhDs in computer science, math, applied math, mechanical engineering, and electrical and computer engineering. Many of them have worked at Microsoft, Google, Facebook and other big tech companies and also people who have gone on to Harvard, MIT and Stanford.