Jacob Shaul teaches an afterschool program called "Mode to Code," which is taught to middle schoolers, at Everett Middle School in San Francisco on August 27, 2025. Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle/AP

Jacob Shaul is the kind of rising high school student who spends Saturdays playing chess and devours books by Malcom Gladwell and Angela Duckworth. He can just as readily explain the principles of quantum computing as he can bang out a drum solo with his band. And, after learning to code himself, he decided to share his passion by founding a nonprofit that has brought free courses on coding to more than a thousand students across five continents.

What started as a one-man “test run” at Shaul’s former middle school, Live Oak School, is now a 16-person operation offering weeks-long,

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