What started out as a simple hobby has now become a main source of income and creative outlet for Daniel Strokis.

Strokis, who works at a Coca-Cola Bottling in Charlotte as an application developer, recently spoke to Saluda Trail students during the Hour of Code.

“Code has been hugely influential in my life,” said Strokis. “It’s what I use to solve problems every day, whether it’s automating some small process on my home computer or using it to architect an application to help keep track of thousands of customers.”

Strokis, who spoke about his job and what an application developer at Coke does, said he enjoyed talking the Wildcats. “I also talked about why I believe learning coding is important and how I got interested in coding,” he said.

Strokis said he actually didn’t get interested in coding until he was about 19 or 20 years old.“I was studying music at college and took an electronic music class,” he said. “We studied how to create simple computer programs to make music, and that was where my interest in coding really began.”

During Saluda Trail’s hour of code, students not only heard from Strokis and other professionals who code, but from fellow students as well.

“What I think is so great about the Hour of Code and other programs at STMS is that they expose students to code and computer science,” said Strokis who visited Mrs. Graves’ classes. “I think it’s very important that students get exposed to many different disciplines, whether it’s computer science, robotics, mathematics, history, etc. because you never know what might capture a student’s attention or imagination.”

Strokis said he doesn’t expect every student who participates in Hour of Code will write code every day, or go on to become the next Dennis Ritchie, a famous computer scientist who created the C programming language. “There’s definitely going to be someone who does participate in it and does get interested in code who might not have been shown how awesome coding is otherwise,” the app developer said. “I don’t mind if a student isn’t interested in coding, but I do think it’s important that they’re at least shown what coding is and what you can do with it.”