Yes, definitely. We consider anyone ages 13-18 a “high schooler”.
4,056 karma · joined March 18, 2013
Email: zach@hackclub.com (mention HN)
Website: https://zachlatta.com
GitHub: https://github.com/zachlatta
We also make a very small amount of revenue through the fiscal sponsorship program the other commenter mentioned: https://hackclub.com/fiscal-sponsorship/
India and Bangladesh caused by far the most issues with customs. Packages got held up, and they often tried to charge duties of up to 70%. His concern is definitely real.
The best option is to buy an item within the country using a US card, or to buy an item using a local card and get reimbursed via PayPal from a US bank account.
Transparent ledger of donations: https://hcb.hackclub.com/oxy2dev-laptop/transactions
We need about $500 more USD to get him an M1 MacBook Air (they are more expensive in Bangladesh, where he is based).
GitHub thread with details: https://github.com/OXY2DEV/markview.nvim/issues/218. Here is a Reddit comment from the author showing this is the official fundraiser: https://old.reddit.com/r/neovim/comments/1h7vhmg/bro_been_de...
Recent projects include https://highseas.hackclub.com, https://hackclub.com/arcade, https://hackpad.hackclub.com, and a cross-continent train hackathon: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hiG3fYq3xUU
Roles are multidisciplinary and combine coding, product, program design, and direct mentorship of teenagers.
Email me at zach@hackclub.com with your background if interested.
Couldn't get through to anyone, no replies. I refused to pay. They sent it to debt collection, no matter how many times I sent the picture of the receipt they refused to take it.
Took me 2 years to get it off my credit report, including sending multiple letters via certified mail. Caused my credit to go down by 100 until it finally disappeared and went back to normal.
They. Are. The. Worst.
For each hour they "make", they earn "Doubloons" which they can spend on things they need for more projects - like soldering irons, Raspberry Pis, Framework Laptops, and more.
There are about 900 teenagers coding each day and working on different projects. He might be inspired by some of the things they're working on, like this personality quiz (https://personalityquiz.kittycat.hackclub.app/) and this overly aggressive cat-themed study timer (https://study.sticks.gay/).
One good beginner activity could be making his own homepage, which he'll earn a boba tea for: https://boba.hackclub.com
It’s free and nonprofit. There are 60 locations. Maybe one is near you?
We made a video at https://youtube.com/watch?v=2BID8_pGuqA
It orients the entire USA public education system around training sociopathic behavior into teenagers.
We tell young people the best way to get ahead in life is through exaggerating. Then we train them to do it in their college essays and extracurriculars.
Gross.
It’s been played thousands of times and is a super cool way of building intuition around function composition.
$ ssh sshtron.zachlatta.comOur sponsorship program has expanded and we now serve organizations of all mission types, including software, climate, and social movements. We sponsor over 1,500 organizations, most of them grassroots, and receive donations from funders including Ford Foundation, Gates Foundation, and many others for them.
We've been helping many OCF groups that need a new fiscal sponsor, and 3 have transferred over already. For any groups reading this - we would be happy to work with you and continue supporting your work.
Please email me directly at zach@hackclub.com and I can connect you with the right person on our team.
There are two unique things about HCB that sets us apart: 1) we are software-enabled, with a custom Rails app for financial management, which offers dramatically better UX than most fiscal sponsors (there is a demo if you click the screenshot on https://hackclub.com/hcb/), including the ability to have physical spending cards, and 2) we are a nonprofit ourselves, and any excess fees go toward making HCB free for high school students and supporting their education.
It's an open source JavaScript game engine with lots of tutorials for beginners. There's an amazing gallery of JavaScript games built by teenagers just like them on the site too.
When they make their own game, we will send them all the parts they need to build a physical Sprig console for free as a grant! We are a nonprofit foundation.
I’ve talked to a lot of parents about this, and one policy that stood out to me was:
- It’s allowed to use a computer to create things as much as you want, but you need to use the family computer in a common space - learning to code, writing a book, composing music, anything where you’re making something
- You can have 1 hour of screen time daily on personal devices outside of common spaces for consuming - TV / etc
I liked this because it emphasizes positive use of computers. I think something like this could be great up until age 13 or so, then it should probably be a lot more permissive.
Edit: I’m pretty sure bentt, who is also in this thread, is the parent I’m referring to. Hi Ben!
By far, beyond any tricks or special hacks, the most effective mechanism is just posting things people on HN will genuinely find interesting. And that’s the beauty of this place!
We're Hack Club Bank, an initiative of Hack Club, a nonprofit platform dedicated to streamlining the process for groups seeking nonprofit status. Through our platform, we've greatly reduced the time, cost, and complexity that typically goes with gaining and maintaining nonprofit status.
Hack Club Bank started as a solution for our own clubs and hackathons needing nonprofit status, and now we serve as a nonprofit fiscal sponsor for over 1,100 organizations, making us the largest fiscal sponsor in America serving young people.
Our specific Hack Club Bank team consists of three operations staff, two full-time engineers, a group of contractors, and Hack Club teenagers who use and contribute to the platform. We're looking to add an Engineering Manager to this team.
We offer a salary range of $80k to $110k for this position. As part of our commitment to transparency, you can view our finances at https://bank.hackclub.com/hq/
Our future plans include open-sourcing the platform, adding grant-making tools, and building further tools to increase financial transparency for all.
We are located in Shelburne, Vermont, and are part of the broader Hack Club team of 20. To apply, please visit https://hiring.hackclub.com/27568
You can learn more about our platform at https://hackclub.com/bank/
Please donate to this link for the money to go into the OnBoard fund directly: https://bank.hackclub.com/donations/start/onboard
We often get groups like this trying to sponsor our events and buy emails of our students. It's disgusting. We also sometimes get their counselors trying to "collaborate" with us to get one of their projects published.
The competitive college application process and supporting industry of consultants is creating a generation of sociopaths. We are teaching young people that the way to get ahead in life is to lie, cheat, steal, exaggerate, and hire consultants to help you do it with class.
Over the past few months, I have spoken with some of the admissions leaders behind "top" institutions. They say that in many cases, it's hard for them to tell the difference between these applicants and "real" applicants. Most CS programs still don't even look at the GitHubs of applicants!
First, this is amazing! Thank you for helping make this happen.
There are a number of Hack Clubs that run out of computer labs like these. My #1 recommendation would be to have a concrete plan in place to ensure high quality, reliable internet access, and the ability for students to access the space recreationally.
Many of the Hack Clubs we have in underresourced areas that run out of labs like this don't have access (or lost access) to the internet, and for many of them we will reimburse the cost of a 4G phone hotspot. But it is not a very good solution
The other challenge a lot of our teenagers run into is the schools only allowing them to use the computer lab during class hours. I think it is very important that students are able to come to the lab outside of normal class hours to experiment, play games, etc - as it's difficult to find a love for computers if you don't spend a lot of time around them.
It’s also important to note that every year hundreds of people are put on Forbes 30 Under 30. They have categories like 30 Under 30 for Education, 30 Under 30 for Music, 30 Under 30 for Enterprise Software, and many many more. It’s a lot more than 30 people.
Since there are so many people, there are many amazing people and inevitably scammers too.
I am appreciative of the list because it helped some people take me more seriously as a young person who was trying to do something meaningful in the world, but who didn’t finish high school and wasn’t from a high net worth background.