WP Engine Donates Services to Help GeekPack Teach Kids WordPress at Home for Free

If you’re a parent currently spending a lot of time at home with your kids, there’s no question you’re enjoying more of their company (than ever). That said, you might also be looking for educational activities that can occupy a bit of their time and help them learn something useful in the process.  

GeekPack Create & Code Camp is one of those activities that we at WP Engine are proud to support. As part of Engine for Good, WP Engine’s corporate social responsibility program, and specifically its Open Hearts and Open Future pillars, WP Engine employees often look for ways to give our time, talents, and resources to improve the communities where we live and work by focusing on health, hunger, and education initiatives.

GeekPack Create & Code Camp is a 100% free, three-week virtual course geared towards helping kids stuck at home learn about creating websites with WordPress, in addition to learning about Scratch, Computer-Aided Design, Canva/PicMonkey, GSuite, video editing, audio editing, mobile app development, and creative writing.

After launching the free course, GeekPack founder Julia Taylor (aka “Julia the Geek”) discovered a problem that was preventing some students from taking certain parts of the course—some students couldn’t install the free local WordPress development tool Local because they were taking the course on a Chromebook, which meant these students had no way to make a WordPress site. Realizing the issue, Julia contacted WP Engine’s VP of Web Strategy, David Vogelpohl, for help making sure EVERY student could take the course for free.

After talking with WP Engine’s Labs team (which David leads) and with support from WP Engine’s CMO Mary Ellen Dugan, WP Engine was able to provide Julia with a secure, dedicated Labs team server that could be used to set up WordPress instances for students using Chromebooks to build their camp websites.

“I was thrilled to hear about this project and eager to find a way to help,” David said. “As a parent, I know how difficult it can be to find creative learning opportunities at home. WP Engine is proud to support Julia and GeekPack in making sure all their students can learn WordPress.”

WP Engine also provided GeekPack with a Genesis theme for students to use when learning WordPress. The Authority Pro theme includes one-click theme setup features that load required plugins and beautiful block-based demo content in seconds giving the students a fantastic starting point for flexing their creative muscles.

“I’m so excited to partner with WP Engine to ensure ALL kids can build their very own WordPress website,” Julia said. “It was the icing on the cake when WP Engine agreed to provide a premium theme—all the GeekPack students are in for a treat!”

While the camp has already kicked off, it’s not too late to get your kids enrolled. Videos of each day of camp are available through the GeekPack portal and GeekPack has an active and friendly private Facebook group where parents and students can ask and answer questions, post examples of their work, and celebrate the work of others.

Check out some of the kids having a great time at camp!

As we continue to spend time at home, resources such as GeekPack will prove to be invaluable investments of your kids’ time. Get started here today, and stay tuned to the WP Engine blog where we’ll make sure and offer info on additional courses, as they become available.