In 2013 Kelly and Andy started a code club at the downtown Mesa location of the Mesa Public Library. Tolkien’s line from The Fellowship of the Ring proved true:
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
– Sam Gamgee
Like Frodo, we’ve been swept off on an amazing adventure that has reached tens of thousands of kids, thousands of librarians and educators, and hundreds of libraries and schools. Knowing the impact we’re making on kids around the world takes the cake, but meeting so many of you amazing people along the way has been the icing on the cake.
What many of you may not know is that several years ago we took everything we learned from running code clubs in libraries and started… a school! Well, many schools, I guess you could say. “Microschools” we call them. And that has been a wild ride in itself.
As these two parts of our business have developed, coding and microschools, it’s become obvious we would be able to serve our respective communities and impact kids best as independent companies.
With that, I am excited to announce that Prenda Code Club is becoming Fiero Code! “Fiero” is an Italian word that means something along the lines of “that amazing feeling you get when you achieve something.”
A couple months ago, we were on a team retreat where we spent long hours over strategic workshop sessions, meals, and hikes through the mountains discussing our “why.” As a team, we honed in on this idea that we exist as an organization to help give kids that amazing “aha!” moment, when they unlock how to do something awesome in code. We felt strongly that this feeling of accomplishment, pride, and excitement is profound, and something we could confidently aim at.
Fiero captures this perfectly, and we’re beyond excited about operating with this clarified vision.
For all of our customers: nothing about your subscription, unique links, or anything else related to access to our software will change. Over the coming weeks we will supply updated graphics, banners, web copy, etc, and you can work on updating your library or school website at your pace.
Thank you for being a part of our community. We’re looking forward to continue to partner with amazing people and organizations like you to reach kids with computer programming education and facilitate daily fiero moments.
Luke Miller
CEO, Fiero Code