He’s still in high school, but Jeffrey Zang already has more than five years of programming experience under his belt. Jeffrey has been programming since the 5th grade, when he first learned about Scratch during a math class. Jeffrey says he was “immediately captivated by the magic of programming” and enthralled by his newfound ability to recreate everything from Pong to Paper Minecraft. By the time he was in 6th grade, Jeffrey’s father had introduced him to Python, and he had already completed basic programs like a pizza maker and a choose your own adventure game.

But by his freshman year of high school, Jeffrey had almost lost that spark for programming which burned so bright just a few years earlier. That spark was reignited when Jeffrey’s friend invited him to attend JAMHacks 6, one of Canada’s largest hackathons for high schoolers. Initially, Jeffrey balked at the request, unsure if he was ready for an intense commitment that would mean spending his first solo night away from home. Not to mention that Jeffrey had been considering changing his career path and pursuing opportunities in business rather than programming. However, just two days before the event, Jeffrey had a change of heart and decided to get a team together with his friend and come up with a project.

To this day, Jeffrey says JAMHacks was one of the most fun experiences he has ever had,  fondly remembering his time learning in workshops, the power outage in the middle of the hackathon, and especially the free food. Jeffrey credits JAMHacks with reigniting his passion for programming. As a result of his hackathon experience, Jeffrey went on to learn React and got his first internship doing full-stack development for uxSino. While he had always appreciated the problem-solving aspect of programming, he says he really loves programming “because of how it brings people together.”

Since his first hackathon, Jeffrey has gone on to compete in Hack the North and submit winning projects at Harvest Hacks and Give Back Hacks. While Jeffrey has been highly successful in his career for someone so young, not all opportunities have been easy to reach. After being rejected from numerous internships due to his age despite being otherwise qualified, Jeffrey and his friend decided to bridge this gap by organizing ClockHacks, their own hackathon geared towards other high schoolers.

Organizing ClockHacks came with its own set of challenges, as Jeffrey and his teammates were often written off by corporate sponsors due to their age. But Jeffrey persevered, and the event was a complete success. ClockHacks 2022 attracted more than 200 participants, and Jeffrey worked hard to ensure the fourteen workshops and activities scheduled provided as much knowledge as possible to participating hackers. Jeffrey wanted to make sure that hackers left the event with a reinvigorated or newfound passion for programming and technology. 

Jeffrey continues to inspire others to pursue careers in tech. He spends his time outside of school tutoring his hackathon teammates and other students. This summer, Jeffrey will be organizing RythmHacks, with the mission of “educating aspiring youth about tech startups and entrepreneurship,” as well as Hack the 6ix, one of the largest recurring hackathons in Canada.