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Full STEAM Ahead: Blizzard Celebrates Hour of Code

Our employees take pride in giving back to the community. It’s a big part of what daily life at Blizzard is all about!

As part of our commitment to empowering youth through STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics), Blizzard employees recently celebrated Code.org's Hour of Code by volunteering their time to engage with students from local schools and community organizations. Code.org is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and organizes the annual Hour of Code campaign every December, which has engaged 10% of students around the world.

Student Field Trip to Blizzard Irvine

During the Hour of Code, Blizzard Irvine opened its doors to a group of middle school students from Villa Fundamental Middle School for a day of career talks and tours. The field trip concluded with a coding activity, where volunteers worked alongside students to create a Dance Party using code.

Career Q&A Session with Orange County Classroom

Employees met with a group of curious 4th and 5th graders from Finley Elementary to share their career paths in computer science, games, and tech. Following a Q&A session, the students showed off their latest coding projects, which included mazes and games.

Coding Session with Children & Families in Korea

The Blizzard Korea team hosted a coding activity for children at Severance Children’s Hospital. With guidance from Blizzard employees, pediatric patients and their families learned how to code in a fun and engaging way. One of the children shared that, "I have already experienced coding education programs in elementary school, but learning how to draw circles and squares through coding was totally new for me. I am excited to learn more about coding!"

And, don't forget—you can support STEAM education among youth with Code.org by purchasing the World of Warcraft charity pet, Whomper, or grabbing the plush by December 31, 2018. You can also help the cause by hosting your own Hour of Code event for friends and family, volunteering in a classroom, or helping translate a tutorial.

Blizzard employees shared their thoughts about volunteering at these events:

Being able to work with Code.org and local schools has been such a rewarding experience. I loved seeing so many different types of kids interested in coding and passionate about sharing their projects. It was humbling to share my journey and to show them how many different types of engineering there is!
– Cat, Software Engineer, Hearthstone
I really enjoyed interacting with these bright minds. We talked about their daily life, school and of course video games. Best of all, we coded hilarious dances together, learning from each other in the process.
– Antonio, Project Manager, Global Publishing
It was incredible to get to know those kids and to help them discover the fun in scripting and coding. I was moved by their excitement and inspired by their talent. There were a lot of parallels between the activity and my work here at Blizzard, so it was a great tool for starting a conversation with kids who’d never conceived of what it might be like to work at a game studio before.
– Robin, Senior In-Game Technical Artist I, Blizzard Animation
I was so impressed by the students at Finley! So many went beyond the basics of their assignments to make what *they* wanted. Programming is all about creating something new, and this group is already going above and beyond to realize their own visions!
– Jesse, Lead Software Engineer, Overwatch
The children were so enthusiastic to try the coding activities and did so well! I hope the coding session inspires them to think about computer science and coding in the future. The experience was also very meaningful to me and I am proud of being a part of this initiative to support children.
– One, Senior Software Engineer, Battle.net

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