El Paso kids can learn to create games, apps through courses at Code Ninjas franchise

Maria Cortes Gonzalez, El Paso Times
·2 min read
A Code Ninjas is coming to El Paso. The business helps kids learn to code through a game-based curriculum.
A Code Ninjas is coming to El Paso. The business helps kids learn to code through a game-based curriculum.

Code Ninjas, a cool franchise that makes kids into savvy coders, is coming to El Paso.

The franchise will open Jan. 31 inside West Towne Marketplace, 6450 N. Desert Blvd., Ste. G-103.

Code Ninjas helps kids gain coding and game development skills through a self-paced game-based curriculum, so they learn while having fun.

As kids build their skills with the help of the center’s senseis, they advance through a belt system — from white to black — until they can code or build their own game or app. The coding courses will be geared toward children, ages 5 to 14.

Owner Krissett Loya-Bodiford, a native El Pasoan with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry and public health, respectively, said in a news release she wanted to open a space for kids who are excited about learning but may not have a group to join that fits their interests.

A new franchise, Coding Ninjas, will offer coding courses geared toward children, ages 5 to 14.
A new franchise, Coding Ninjas, will offer coding courses geared toward children, ages 5 to 14.

“It's about bringing together a community of kids who are creative, who are unique and who may not feel like there's a special kind of group for them at school, but they want to be a part of a community,” she said.

A junior course is for 5- to 7-year-olds and a Create course is for kids starting at 8 years old. Advanced belt levels include instruction in coding languages such as C# (pronounced C sharp), Lua and JavaScript. Ninjas can attend sessions with their senseis twice weekly for an hour each day. The dojo also offers school break camps.

Code Ninjas’ nine instructors include STEM majors from the University of Texas at El Paso and New Mexico State University.

The dojo will be open from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. The monthly fee is $225. The dojo will be able to accommodate 24 students at one time in the 1,300-square foot space.

The franchise was started in 2017 in Houston and has hundreds of locations in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

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María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150; mcortes@elpasotimes.com; @EPTMaria on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Code Ninjas to offer courses for El Paso kids to improve tech skills