Michelle Sun

Michelle Sun (born late 1980s) is a Hong Kong engineer, entrepreneur and teacher. In 2013, she founded First Code Academy which teaches Hong Kong children from the age of six how to code and create mobile applications. Teaching is given either in their school classrooms or in the firm's own offices.[1][2]

Biography

A native of Hong Kong, Sun completed her secondary school education with nine A's in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination. After graduating in economics at the University of Chicago, she joined Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong as a financial research analyst. In 2012, she followed a three-month bootcamp course on computer coding at the women-only Hackbright Academy in San Francisco. Sun, who had chosen the course after failing to learn coding from books, appreciated the assistance of Christian Fernandez, Hackbright's founder, who explained how all the pieces worked together.[2]

After successfully completing the course, she worked for various startups in Silicon Valley including Bump Technologies and Buffer where she was the first growth hacker. While in San Francisco, at weekends she started to teach middle school girls as a volunteer, inspiring her to start her own academy.[3][4]

On returning to Hong Kong, she founded First Code Academy in 2013, It began on a small scale as a girls-only workshop. It now provides a range of courses for both boys and girls from six to eighteen. Starting with a basic introduction to programming, courses include classes on how to build an app. Interviewed by Josh Steimle of MWI, a digital marketing firm, she explained: "Our mission is to empower the next generation to become creators with technology. The leaders of this generation will require a solid grasp of technology regardless of the field they work in, be it tech, medicine, law, or finance."[1]

In addition to her academy, Sun is active in trying to achieve improvements in gender balance, co-founding Women Who Code HK and becoming a council member of the Hong Kong Women's Foundation.[2] She believes Women Who Code can contribute to community support for women, providing advice and sharing services. Through the Women's Foundation, she has been inspired by the leadership of Su-Mei Thompson.[3]

Awards

In 2015, Sun was selected by the BBC as one of the "30 Under 30 Women Entrepreneurs" and in 2016 by Forbes' "30 Under 30 in Asia".[5][6]

References

  1. 1 2 Steimle, Josh (5 September 2015). "First Code's Michelle Sun Is Teaching Kids To Code In Hong Kong". TechCrunch. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "Michelle Sun — Against all odds". TecHKU. 4 February 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  3. 1 2 Foo, Megan (1 August 2014). "Inspiring Woman Leader Spotlight: Michelle Sun". WomenLead. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  4. ↑ "Q&A with Michelle Sun, Founder of First Code Academy". ButterBoom. 14 January 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  5. ↑ "Michelle Sun, 28, Hong Kong". BBC. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  6. ↑ "Meet The 30 Under 30: Enterprise Technology". Forbes. 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
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