Bullying is an unfortunate reality that children often navigate at quite an impressionable age. Jaspreet Kaur, 11, was no exception. This is her story:
Attending P.S. 209 Margaret Mead in Brooklyn, NY, Jaspreet was picked on for her body size when she was 11. What might have been an extremely negative experience for most kids her age, however, encouraged her to channel her energies away from anger into something constructive. In her case, that was coding.
With no faculty to teach her in her public school, Jaspreet took coding lessons at BYJU’s FutureSchool. She quickly learned the basics and, right after her tenth grade, started working on building game apps. Her curiosity was immediately sparked and she started developing an app – Get Fit. “I believe this app will change the lives of many people around the world,” says Jaspreet.
Get Fit is designed to improve the lifestyles of kids her age and set them on a path of life-long well-being. The app is ideal for kids aged 6 and above and teaches them how to eat healthy meals and exercise routinely. Jaspreet even included a “Consult A Dietician” option among several other pages in her app. On the home screen, children can use the simple, user-friendly and simple interface to do a variety of things:
- Plan and view their diets with healthy meals,
- Choose from among 10 types of exercises,
- Monitor their progress in their weight loss/gain journey, and
- Watch videos to commit to week-long exercise regimens.
Following her teacher’s suggestions, Jaspreet entered a global coding competition only five months after she enrolled in her classes. The competition was no novice’s job either. It required students to think of real-world problems and solve them using their coding skills and developing an app. Jaspreet’s first thoughts were that of school bullying. She wanted to help young kids learn to eat healthy meals and exercise properly to feel confident in their skin. On being asked about bullying in school, Jaspreet says, “Kids should not judge others based on appearances.” She proposed this idea to her coding teacher and they absolutely loved it!
What started as a mere prototype was finished by March of this year. Jaspreet’s teachers and friends found the app very inspiring and were very impressed by her feat. Her mom Baljinder Kaur proudly says, “Jaspreet’s apps are great, functional and professional too.” With her app now available on the Thunkable coding platform, Jaspreet awaits her results in the final round of the competition.
While Jaspreet’s achievement astonishing at her age, her story shows what young minds can achieve if nurtured early. Jaspreet admits she does not know what she wants to do professionally, but she does want to use her coding skills in her career.
