UBC students have launched ambitious one-on-one workshops to help children on the autism spectrum program, problem solve, and connect. Learn more:

When Bahar Moussavi arrived at the University of British Columbia, starting a non-profit wasn’t the first thing on her mind. Her days were busy enough completing a combined major in Computer Science and Microbiology and Immunology. But over coffees with friends, an ambitious ‘side’ project began to take shape.

“We’d all gone to high-school with kids with special needs, and we saw them get discouraged when it came to certain activities, like coding,” says Moussavi. “But what if we could offer something more personalized?”

With backgrounds in computer science, public health and neuroscience, the friends (fellow UBC students Mohamed Aly, Mickey Torio, Felicia Chan and Hussein Hatim El Afifi) focused on developing coding workshops for children on the autism spectrum.

“People said ‘You’re a student, you don’t have much time to do this!’ But we said we’d make time,” says Moussavi.