More than 200 elementary, middle and high school students across the globe visited their local eBay offices to participate in the Hour of Code initiative. The event serves as a grassroots movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries with the goal of encouraging and enabling students to try coding for just one hour, to foster further curiosity and learning. At eBay headquarters in San Jose, three different schools brought interested student in to learn about coding in addition to getting a unique tour of the eBay campus. As you can tell by the video, the event was a big hit with the kids.
In Toronto, our Kijiji offices held two separate events, bringing in 40 students from fourth to eighth grade. Each group took a tour of the office, where they discovered what a technology company looks like inside and got a chance to chat with the employees. They also took in a special presentation explaining how the Kijiji web site works, with an overview of what HTML, CSS, Javascript, and HTTP are.
And over at our Netanya, Israel offices, one group of high school students made the three-hour trip north to take part in the event. The students didn't just participate in Hour of Code, but they also had an opportunity to talk with employees to get a better sense of eBay's role in Israel.
It was great to see such eager students, many of whom were experiencing coding for the very first time. Toronto teacher Emily Chan summed up the experience, saying, "What a great way for our kids to envision their future careers. Our kids had a fantastic time. Many even asked if they could visit again!"
