Our Story: 10 years of TechSpark Academy

How One Teenager’s Curiosity Sparked Our Adventure

2013: The Genesis: Scituate, Massachusetts

Everything began in Scituate, Massachusetts—a quaint New England town on Boston’s South Shore, where the high street feels more English seaside than American suburb. I was staying with friends, the Temple family, enjoying a sun-filled July that allowed me to combine my consulting work with beach walks and long summer evenings.

Then something unexpected happened.

Nicole, the elder of the two Temple daughters, enrolled in a one-week Java course at Harvard, run by Digital Media Academy. My daughter Laura and Nicole’s close friend was far less convinced. “Computer science is boring and complicated,” she protested. My Swiss-German upbringing surfaced quickly: if Nicole was taking the course, then Laura would too – despite the $1,200 per week price tag.

The surprise came fast.

That very first evening, Nicole and Laura were animatedly discussing how to code a turtle to move up and down the screen. What had begun as reluctance had turned into curiosity – and, almost instantly, excitement.

Everything began in Scituate, Massachusetts – a quaint New England town on Boston’s South Shore, where the high street feels more English seaside than American suburb. I was staying with friends, the Temple family, enjoying a sun-filled July that allowed me to combine my consulting work with beach walks and long summer evenings.

Then something unexpected happened.

Nicole, the elder of the two Temple daughters, enrolled in a one-week Java course at Harvard, run by Digital Media Academy. My daughter Laura and Nicole’s close friend was far less convinced. “Computer science is boring and complicated,” she protested. My Swiss-German upbringing surfaced quickly: if Nicole was taking the course, then Laura would too – despite the $1,200 per week price tag.

The surprise came fast.

That very first evening, Nicole and Laura were animatedly discussing how to code a turtle to move up and down the screen. What had begun as reluctance had turned into curiosity – and, almost instantly, excitement.

2015: From Boston and Snapchat to EPFL in Lausanne

The following summer, Laura wanted to go further. This time, she asked for a two-week course. Snapchat launched just a few years earlier in 2011 – capturing her imagination, and she was spending way too much time on her phone. ;( Which is why I jumped on the opportunity to invest in a 2-week course.

There is something so refreshing about seeing a child create with digital technology rather than simply consume it. It’s the difference between being a spectator and becoming an actor. That insight pushed me to try something more ambitious: bringing Digital Media Academy (the Boston provider), to Switzerland.

I contacted their team in Boston, only to learn that their headquarters were near Stanford, in California. When I reached out there, the response was clear – they were in the midst of rapid expansion across the United States and had neither the time nor the capacity to come to Switzerland or Europe.

So we built our own solution.

I turned to my nephew – and Laura’s cousin – Ted, who was studying at EPFL in Lausanne and serving as Vice President of Junior Entreprise, the student consulting body. Ted was immediately on board. Together, we laid the foundations of what he would help name TechSpark Academy.

My sister Sarah designed the logo, and Philippe de Korodi, Director of Collège Champittet, generously allowed us to use the beautiful lakeside campus in Pully to host our very first camp. That summer, TechSpark launched with three courses: Python, Robotics, and Digital Photography & Film.

The following summer, Laura wanted to go further. This time, she asked for a two-week course. Snapchat launched just a few years earlier in 2011 – capturing her imagination, and she was spending way too much time on her phone. ;( Which is why I jumped on the opportunity to invest in a 2-week course.

There is something so refreshing about seeing a child create with digital technology rather than simply consume it. It’s the difference between being a spectator and becoming an actor. That insight pushed me to try something more ambitious: bringing Digital Media Academy (the Boston provider), to Switzerland.

I contacted their team in Boston, only to learn that their headquarters were near Stanford, in California. When I reached out there, the response was clear – they were in the midst of rapid expansion across the United States and had neither the time nor the capacity to come to Switzerland or Europe.

So we built our own solution.

I turned to my nephew – and Laura’s cousin – Ted, who was studying at EPFL in Lausanne and serving as Vice President of Junior Entreprise, the student consulting body. Ted was immediately on board. Together, we laid the foundations of what he would help name TechSpark Academy.

My sister Sarah designed the logo, and Philippe de Korodi, Director of Collège Champittet, generously allowed us to use the beautiful lakeside campus in Pully to host our very first camp. That summer, TechSpark launched with three courses: Python, Robotics, and Digital Photography & Film.

Geneva Expansion - Partnering with Engaged Parents

Our journey began at Collège Champittet with a two-week pilot in the summer of 2015. The following summer, we received a call from the International School of Geneva’s Les Nations campus (Ecolint Les Nations), where we went on to run large camps —one with 32 students and another with more than 50. To support the program, 11 EPFL students joined us as instructors and mentors.

How did TechSpark gain access to new schools and learning spaces? Most often, through engaged and motivated parents who introduced us to their children’s schools – just as they had at Champittet, where both Laura and Ted were students.

We were invited to Ecolint Les Nations (Geneva) after a parent working at the International Labour Organization (ILO) successfully secured a grant to support the program.
We were later welcomed at Institut Florimont thanks to the President of the APEF parent association, who facilitated a direct introduction to the school’s Financial Director, leading to a formal partnership agreement.

These collaborations reinforced a simple truth: TechSpark grows best when schools and families work together to create meaningful learning opportunities.

2017: Kate’s Revolutionary Zurich Chapter

Interestingly enough, my journey with TechSpark Academy also started with a trip to the US.

While on holiday in Miami in 2016, I kept seeing ads for coding camps for kids. I remember thinking how cool, relevant, and forward-thinking they were. At the time, it felt obvious that technology education was going to be essential for the next generation.

When I returned home to Switzerland, I searched for similar programmes and came across TechSpark Academy. It had only just launched. The camp dates didn’t quite work for my kids’ holiday dates, so I bookmarked the website in my browser, thinking I’d come back to it another time.

Over the following year, a lot happened. In June 2017, my family relocated somewhat unexpectedly from Montreux to Zurich. With no summer holiday plans and two kids to keep busy, I started looking for camps in Zurich – especially tech or coding camps.

To my surprise, I found nothing.

This genuinely shocked me. Zurich has ETHZ on its doorstep, one of the world’s leading technical universities, full of incredibly talented students – yet no one seemed to be offering coding camps for children. That’s when I remembered my TechSpark bookmark.

I reached out to Marta in Lausanne, initially just to ask whether she knew of anyone running similar programmes in the Zurich area. If not, I asked whether she had ever considered expanding.

Marta was refreshingly honest. She explained that she didn’t know of any similar programmes and absolutely saw the opportunity – but between her biotech consultancy job and running TechSpark Lausanne, she simply didn’t have the capacity to expand.

That’s when I said, almost instinctively: “Well, I have capacity. I’m in Zurich. And no one else is doing it. So let’s do it together.”

She warned me that it would be hard work and that I would likely make no money in the first year. None of that really mattered to me. I was 100% convinced this needed to exist – and if we didn’t do it, someone else eventually would.

We agreed to give it a try with a pilot camp during the October 2017 holidays.

What followed was a crash course in entrepreneurship.

Interestingly enough, my journey with TechSpark Academy also started with a trip to the US.

While on holiday in Miami in 2016, I kept seeing ads for coding camps for kids. I remember thinking how cool, relevant, and forward-thinking they were. At the time, it felt obvious that technology education was going to be essential for the next generation.

When I returned home to Switzerland, I searched for similar programmes and came across TechSpark Academy. It had only just launched. The camp dates didn’t quite work for my kids’ holiday dates, so I bookmarked the website in my browser, thinking I’d come back to it another time.

Over the following year, a lot happened. In June 2017, my family relocated somewhat unexpectedly from Montreux to Zurich. With no summer holiday plans and two kids to keep busy, I started looking for camps in Zurich – especially tech or coding camps.

To my surprise, I found nothing.

This genuinely shocked me. Zurich has ETHZ on its doorstep, one of the world’s leading technical universities, full of incredibly talented students – yet no one seemed to be offering coding camps for children. That’s when I remembered my TechSpark bookmark.

I reached out to Marta in Lausanne, initially just to ask whether she knew of anyone running similar programmes in the Zurich area. If not, I asked whether she had ever considered expanding.

Marta was refreshingly honest. She explained that she didn’t know of any similar programmes and absolutely saw the opportunity – but between her biotech consultancy job and running TechSpark Lausanne, she simply didn’t have the capacity to expand.

That’s when I said, almost instinctively: “Well, I have capacity. I’m in Zurich. And no one else is doing it. So let’s do it together.”

She warned me that it would be hard work and that I would likely make no money in the first year. None of that really mattered to me. I was 100% convinced this needed to exist – and if we didn’t do it, someone else eventually would.

We agreed to give it a try with a pilot camp during the October 2017 holidays.

What followed was a crash course in entrepreneurship.

I called, emailed, and just showed up at countless schools until one of them finally agreed to host a camp on their premises. We set up registration forms, interviewed ETHZ students for instructor roles, and everything was coming together.

Then, one week before the camp, the school coordinator had a family emergency and pulled out.

We suddenly had 18 excited students, registered and ready for their very first TechSpark Zurich camp – with no venue.

The next 48 hours were frantic. I called schools, language centres, hotels – anything that might have a classroom or meeting space. Eventually, we found short-term conference rooms for rent.

We were incredibly lucky: every single family agreed to the location change without hesitation.

And just like that, the first TechSpark Zurich camp launched.

One could say, “and the rest is history.” But for us, this was just the beginning of an exciting journey.

Ironically, all those calls I had made to schools in search of space turned into unexpected marketing. Over the following months, schools began reaching out to us, asking whether we would like to host camps and coding clubs on their premises.

We happily said yes.