We believe anyone with passion and perseverance can learn how to code and build unique software.

Whenever we face a challenge and we need to make a decision, big or small, technical or interpersonal, we refer to our core values to remind ourselves what we believe in!

Codelita's six core values are:

When Aideen Nasirishargh was 12, he spent one summer renting Super Nintendo cartridges to collect enough money to buy his first computer -- a Commodore 64. He vividly remembers the first lines of code that he wrote was: x + y = 5; y = 3; print x; and he couldn't figure out why his computer was not smart enough to determine x must be 2! He spent many years pushing hard to learn and practice programming until he received an International Silver medal in IOI before finishing high school. Later, during his undergraduate years, he advanced to the World Finals of ICPC twice in China and Sweden.

Dreaming big, Aideen built his first open-source web application from his bedroom with a 48 kbps dial-up Internet connection when he was 18. He was amazed at how the Internet helps anyone to become a worldwide producer. He couldn't be more excited to see users from the Netherlands, Australia, Chile, and South Africa using his platform. Since 2003, he has taught programming and algorithms to high school and college students and published a book on Data Structures and Algorithms.

In 2012, Aideen dropped out of his Master's program in Artificial Intelligence to move to the US and work for Google Inc. Later, he joined Zoosk Inc. and Credit Karma Inc. in his career. As a Director of Web Applications and Staff Software Engineer, he reviewed thousands of resumes, conducted hundreds of interviews, and hired tens of developers. He realized that there is a massive demand for passionate programmers in the market, and the supply from traditional education is not enough. Additionally, becoming a programmer should be more accessible and fun for those with enough passion and perseverance. Pursuing his lifelong passions, Aideen left his job in 2019 to focus on the Codelita project full-time. He is an enthusiast of teaching and learning and firmly believes in making education personalized and accessible to anyone.