LAFAYETTE PARISH — Terysa Ridgeway, a software engineer and self-published author, created Code and Play, a learning space where children explore coding and technology through interactive activities. Kids gather on the first and third Saturday of each month to learn tech fundamentals through hands-on games designed to make complex ideas approachable.
Ridgeway said the project reflects a lesson her family taught her growing up.
“Make sure you go out and learn all that you can so when you learn those things, make sure you bring them back home, and so this is my way of honoring that,” Ridgeway said.
Both of Ridgeway’s parents worked as educators, and she said their influence shaped her approach to learning and teaching. “Although I went to college for computer science and I’ve been in the software engineering industry, with code and play and with my book series, I have the opportunity to educate,” Ridgeway said.
While building her career in tech, Ridgeway launched Code and Play and began writing children’s books. One of her earliest memories with technology came when her mother, a teacher, brought a school computer home during the summer.
“She was able to bring her class room computer home over the summer, so between my sister and I we had to figure out how to plug this thing up. If I could remember any experience that felt like ok this is the beginning of engineering, it felt like that,” Ridgeway said.
Today, Ridgeway hopes children who visit Code and Play can experience those same moments of discovery.
“I released this little robot maybe two or three years ago where I say children as young as 3 years old can learn how to code,” Ridgeway said.
Ridgeway said her work with kids and her books also grew out of personal moments with her own family. “I remember my youngest asking, ‘when you were a kid, when your mom took your ipad away, what did you do?’ And I’m like when I was a kid I didn’t have an Ipad,” Ridgeway said.
The exchange eventually helped inspire a series of children’s books she began writing during the pandemic. Ridgeway said the process also became a way to cope with several losses in her family.
“I feel that the book series was kind of therapeutic for me, because I was able to like, relive moments where we were altogether, and things of that nature so I found it to be really therapeutic,” Ridgeway said.
Ridgeway’s oldest sister, who worked as an English teacher, helped edit her first book before it went to illustration.
“Unfortunately my sister passed away, just as the book was about to be illustrated so she never got to see that, so we honestly just faced loss after loss after loss so I feel that this is a joyous thing, being able to share my family with the world,” Ridgeway said.
Despite those hardships, Ridgeway said opening Code and Play became a moment of reflection and gratitude.
“I feel like I had a moment of gratitude the day of the ribbon cutting, I always hoped that they’re proud of me, I think they would be,” Ridgeway said.
