Local veteran opens new coding center for kids in Monterey

A local army veteran and his wife are embarking on a new adventure in Monterey where they are taking on a new frontier of the future, one child at a time.

Code Ninjas is a new coding center on Pacific Street that is looking to teach the younger generation ways to use code in programming with a bit of fun mixed in.

The center is part of a bigger franchise of learning centers focused on teaching kids ages seven to 14 coding, engineering and robotics. The center is styled like a karate dojo using a 9-belt system each representing a different advancement level in the curriculum.

“It starts off at white belt and moves all the way up to black belt,” said Chelsea Villarreal, the sales and marketing director of Code Ninjas in Monterey. “It’s a four-year curriculum. Within these four years, they’re going to be learning Java, Lua, C# and Unity.”

These coding languages form the basics of creating the games and apps you see every day on your phone. The studies are self-paced, with the help of a Code Sensei in the dojo.

“There’s a huge demand in terms of just jobs and growth in the industry for coders, engineers and STEM jobs in general,” said Julian Torres, an assistant center director at Code Ninjas in Monterey. “Everything that (kids) use in their daily lives was made by people just like them. And if they can learn the skills, or even just the basics of it, they can change the world around them.”

And for the owners of this branch of Code Ninjas, bringing new skills to children in their hometown area is something they are excited to do.

“All of the big companies out there with Google, Facebook and Apple… it’s important for our kids in Monterey County to be competitive with kids out in Silicon
Valley and the rest of the world,” said Enrique Villarreal, the franchise owner of Code Ninjas Monterey.

Code Ninjas in Monterey just opened two weeks ago, but they will have a grand opening event Sept. 14. At the end of the four-year curriculum, students have the goal of building and publishing their very own app in the Apple App Store at the end.