The summer you ship something real.
Direct AI to build a real app with a working engineer beside you. Six weeks later it's live at a URL you can hand to anyone who asks what you've built.
We teach you to go beyond basic vibe-coding — and build useful, impressive tools that solve a real need.
ratio
everything
Built for wherever you're starting.
About half of each cohort hasn't. You'll learn to direct AI, review what it builds, and get something real working.
You'll go deeper. More complex projects, real deployment infrastructure, and harder problems. We won't slow you down.
What the six weeks look like.
From an idea to a live URL.
Most “AI summer programs” end in a folder of notes. This is the only arc we run — and we don't stop the clock until the last step is real.
- 01Idea
You bring the idea.
A tool you wish existed — for your team, your class, the thing that bugs you every day. No code required to walk in.
- 02Build
You build it with AI — live.
Working sessions, not lectures. You direct the same AI tools professionals use — Claude, Cursor, v0 — while an engineer who ships real code sits in the room beside you.
- 03Ship
It goes to a real URL.
Not a slide deck about a tool. The actual thing, deployed somewhere anyone can open it.
- 04Live
We stay until it's up.
If your URL isn't live by demo day, the cohort keeps meeting until it is. That's the whole offer.
Spend the summer building a real app that other people actually end up using.
Six weeks of live sessions, a dedicated 1:1 mentor, and a deployment coach who stays in the room until your student has a working URL to share with anyone who asks what they have been building.
- A real project and the words to talk about it. Every student ships a deployed app at a public URL and gets coached on how to write and talk about it for the Common App, portfolios, and interviews.
- Taking AP CSP? It can double as your Create Task. The work your student does in the cohort can be submitted as the AP CSP Create Performance Task, so one summer covers both.
- Mentors who teach and ship. Every cohort lead has both classroom hours and production code to their name, which is harder to find in one person than you would expect.
- You own everything you make. The code, the accounts, and the deployed app belong to your family. No platform to log into forever, no subscription waiting on the other side.
We are not a college-admissions service. What your student leaves with is a deployed thing they made themselves, and that ends up being a better answer to “tell me about something you built” than a certificate. Demo day is open to family, friends, and an admissions counselor if you'd like to invite one.
- A press-release template & pitch coaching. What you built, why it matters, and where to send it, with no promises about who picks it up.
- A student-to-school adoption letter. A short, professional note offering the tool to a principal, IT director, or club advisor. The response it gets is often the most-cited line on a Common App activities list.
- An honest mentor recommendation. Observation-based, always included, never a paid add-on. We write true ones.
What the structure actually commits to.
Eight founding seats.
Summer Build Studio
Six weeks of live sessions, 1:1 mentorship, and a demo day at the end. Builders aged 14 to 18 leave with a deployed project running at a public URL.
- 12 live build sessions and open studio hours
- A 1:1 project mentor for the full six weeks
- Deployment coaching until it's live at a real public URL
- Story coaching for essays, interviews & portfolios
- AP CSP Create Task alignment if your student wants it
- Demo day with invited guests; reference letter on request
How applying works
A short application of about 10 minutes with real questions, not busywork. Then a 15-minute call with your student and you. Eight seats and six weeks of 1:1 means fit matters in both directions. You'll have an answer within two days of the call.
How the 1:1 time actually works.
A solo-run program with a teenager deserves more than a logo and a promise. Here is exactly how it is set up.
- Everything happens on Zoom, and every session is recorded. Parents can request any recording, any time.
- You are welcome to sit in on any session, no notice needed.
- No private DMs. All written communication runs through a shared project space that parents can join.
- Who is on the other side: a currently credentialed classroom teacher. Credential and clearance documentation shared on request.
- Refunds, plainly: full refund before the second session, prorated through week three. After that we are deep in the build and seats cannot be refilled.
Hi, I'm Chris. I built this for the kid who already has the idea, and just needs someone in the room who can actually help them ship it.
I'm a teacher who also writes real code, so I get both halves of this. I know how to explain a thing until it clicks, and I've shipped the kinds of apps you'll be building. The ones that actually go live and that people use.
I won't talk down to you. If you've never coded, that's normal, about half of every cohort hasn't. You'll learn to direct the AI, check its work, and get something real working. If you already code, we go deeper.
The whole job is to get you to “done.” Plenty of people can hand you a tutorial. The hard part is the messy middle, where most projects quietly die. That's exactly where I sit next to you until your thing is live.
For the families reading this: about 15 years in education, degrees from Brown, LMU, and UCLA, and a stack of tools I've built and run at school. The short version, your student is in experienced hands.