Samantha John facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Samantha John
Samantha John (2014)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Columbia University
Occupation	Entrepreneur
Known for	Founder of Hopscotch

Samantha John is an American entrepreneur. She is best known for creating Hopscotch. This is an app that helps kids learn how to code.

Samantha's Journey to Tech

Samantha John studied different subjects at Columbia University. She learned about math, English, and literature.

Discovering a Love for Computers

Samantha became interested in computers and programming during her last year of college. She started working on a website for a student club. This sparked her interest in coding.

Early Career and First App

Before creating Hopscotch, Samantha worked as an engineer and developer at a company called Pivotal Labs. She was one of the few women developers there.

In 2012, Samantha teamed up with Jocelyn Leavitt, who also went to Columbia University. Together, they made their first app called "Daisy the Dinosaur."

Focusing on Hopscotch

Samantha eventually left her job to work on Hopscotch full-time. She wanted to focus all her energy on developing this new coding app for kids.

Awards and Recognition

Samantha's work with Hopscotch quickly gained attention.

• In 2013, Business Insider named her one of the "30 Most Important Women Under 30 in Tech." They also included her in lists like "Silicon Alley 100."
• In 2014, Glamour magazine recognized Samantha and Jocelyn Leavitt. They were on the list of "35 Women Under 35 Who are Changing the Tech Industry."
• In 2015, the BBC listed her as one of their "100 Women."

All About Hopscotch

Samantha John created Hopscotch when she was 26 years old. She worked with Jocelyn Leavitt, an educator. Jocelyn noticed that not many women or people of color were in engineering jobs. They wanted to change that.

What is Hopscotch?

Hopscotch is a special programming language made for touch screen devices like iPads and iPhones. It was the first of its kind!

Samantha and Jocelyn wanted to make coding simple for children. They also wanted kids to be creative and learn a lot. The app uses a visual way to code. This means kids drag and drop blocks instead of typing lines of code.

Who Uses Hopscotch?

Hopscotch is made for children aged eight to 12. When it first launched, 20,000 people downloaded it in just one week!

The app was first available for iPad in 2013. Later, they made it for iPhone too. Within one year, users created over 2.5 million projects on Hopscotch.

Most kids use the app to build games and make animated artwork. While doing this, they learn the basics of programming. The founders say that almost half of Hopscotch users are girls.

Inspirations and Success

Hopscotch was inspired by other early software. One inspiration was HyperCard, which also inspired the creator of "wiki" software. Another was Scratch, which is another visual coding environment. Samantha also credits her mentor, Alan Kay, for inspiration.

In 2020, Samantha shared that Hopscotch had 200,000 active users every month. Hopscotch has also won awards, like the Best Education Tech App Award from Parent Magazine.