Juan Almanza, 14
Juan Almanza has started a nonprofit, accepted a job as a developer, and won second place in a competition he only started preparing for three days prior. And he’s only 14 years old. He is a high school student in Colombia and has already compiled an astonishing list of accomplishments, learning various programming languages, creating social good, and moving through life with one goal: raising up others.
He started programming in late 2020 during the pandemic lockdowns. He stumbled upon it, recalling, “I had nothing else to do besides school.” Once he found out about this world, though, he didn’t look back. He joined a Gamejam, a hackathon-like event centered around making games, prompting him to want to learn technologies like Python and git over the next several months.
Juan has a competitive spirit that drives him. In August of 2021, he decided to enter a national event with zero knowledge of one of the critical requirements: programming in C. He bought a book from the local bookstore just three days prior to the competition and read as much as he could about C before diving headfirst into the contest. His effort got him second place in the entire country.
The competitions, technology, and hacking changed his life trajectory. Before he discovered MLH and other hacker communities, he navigated through school and life like a ship without a rudder. He says, “I am autistic, and…programming opened the door to an activity that I didn’t get bored of and that I enjoyed so much.”
His first hackathon was HackMTY 2021, and his experiences through MLH opened his eyes. His learning style, he says, “is very different from other people’s.” New concepts are difficult for him to comprehend, but hackathons have framed them in a way he understands. He has grasped entire technologies exceptionally fast at hackathons, learning Svelte in just an hour at one of them. Other accomplishments in his long list of hackathon successes include learning React, Next.js, continuous integration, and blockchains as well as databases like Deta, CockroachDB, and MongoDB. One of his hackathon projects, CollegeLoans, directly led a company to hire him as a developer. He was also the Operations Executive at FreyHacks, a hackathon organized by high school students and is part of the MLH season.
One of the most critical ways technology impacted him was the connections and networks he built as a result. He has made friends from around the world with people who share his beliefs and have a drive to help others. His goal has been to help those struggling or underrepresented in his country through technology. So far, he has made quite an impact. He has channeled his talents into action by starting a nonprofit called ASOFI (Women's Association of Innovation for Rural Development). His organization helps find solutions through technology, allowing women of vulnerable populations to break the cycle of poverty and giving them tools to rise through and improve their situations.
All of these achievements would be impressive for a seasoned adult hacker, but Juan has done all this by 14, and his resume will only build from here.
Quick Facts
Juan Almanza, 14
Juan Almanza has started a nonprofit, accepted a job as a developer, and won second place in a competition he only started preparing for three days prior. And he’s only 14 years old. He is a high school student in Colombia and has already compiled an astonishing list of accomplishments, learning various programming languages, creating social good, and moving through life with one goal: raising up others.
He started programming in late 2020 during the pandemic lockdowns. He stumbled upon it, recalling, “I had nothing else to do besides school.” Once he found out about this world, though, he didn’t look back. He joined a Gamejam, a hackathon-like event centered around making games, prompting him to want to learn technologies like Python and git over the next several months.
Juan has a competitive spirit that drives him. In August of 2021, he decided to enter a national event with zero knowledge of one of the critical requirements: programming in C. He bought a book from the local bookstore just three days prior to the competition and read as much as he could about C before diving headfirst into the contest. His effort got him second place in the entire country.
The competitions, technology, and hacking changed his life trajectory. Before he discovered MLH and other hacker communities, he navigated through school and life like a ship without a rudder. He says, “I am autistic, and…programming opened the door to an activity that I didn’t get bored of and that I enjoyed so much.”
His first hackathon was HackMTY 2021, and his experiences through MLH opened his eyes. His learning style, he says, “is very different from other people’s.” New concepts are difficult for him to comprehend, but hackathons have framed them in a way he understands. He has grasped entire technologies exceptionally fast at hackathons, learning Svelte in just an hour at one of them. Other accomplishments in his long list of hackathon successes include learning React, Next.js, continuous integration, and blockchains as well as databases like Deta, CockroachDB, and MongoDB. One of his hackathon projects, CollegeLoans, directly led a company to hire him as a developer. He was also the Operations Executive at FreyHacks, a hackathon organized by high school students and is part of the MLH season.
One of the most critical ways technology impacted him was the connections and networks he built as a result. He has made friends from around the world with people who share his beliefs and have a drive to help others. His goal has been to help those struggling or underrepresented in his country through technology. So far, he has made quite an impact. He has channeled his talents into action by starting a nonprofit called ASOFI (Women's Association of Innovation for Rural Development). His organization helps find solutions through technology, allowing women of vulnerable populations to break the cycle of poverty and giving them tools to rise through and improve their situations.
All of these achievements would be impressive for a seasoned adult hacker, but Juan has done all this by 14, and his resume will only build from here.
Quick Facts
