In a world that’s quickly evolving with technology, community members orchestrated a summer camp for 15 Milwaukee teens to solve real-world challenges by creating their own apps with the use of artificial intelligence.
Milwaukee Vibe Coding Summer Camp was launched by Alexis Rogers, director of operations at Nouvelle Marketing, and her husband, Ryan Rogers, strategist and creative for the company.
The free camp was a five-day hands-on experience that brought teens to ThriveOn King, 2153 N. Martin Luther King Drive, to learn coding and Base 44, a new AI tool that helps build apps by giving a prompt. Using these tools, they built apps to combat everyday challenges like literacy, mental health and more.
“A lot of it is really trying to help the community,” Alexis Rogers said. “If you give kids the opportunities and tools, then they’ll show you what they believe in.”
Alexis Rogers said she and her husband utilize AI frequently with their agency and they felt that sharing those tools would benefit teens.
“We wanted to be kind of a light for AI because it’s a thing that’s not talked about often and we need the kids to know about this,” Alexis Rogers said. “We know that there are things on their minds, but let’s see it in real life.”
Becoming open-minded to new possibilities
The graduating cohort of Milwaukee Vibe Coding included Nadia Hill, 15. Hill said she woke up one morning to learn her mom signed her up for the camp but was glad she did.
“I didn’t think this was a big deal at first until the instructors told me my app could be something that moves forward,” Hill said.
She began the camp with little coding and AI experience but knew what she wanted to do: create a skin care guide app, which later was named “Glow Guide.”
She chose skin care after realizing that she and her peers faced skin care challenges with puberty and trying to figure out what works best for them.
“You try to use every single product and figure out what’s wrong with you and nothing works,” Hill said. “It’s so hard for teens to buy products, especially if you’re on your cycle and keep breaking out.”
To create the app, Hill put a prompt into Base 44 that generated the app’s name, a skin care quiz, skin routine, ingredients checker and other components.
Hill wanted to improve her app so she asked friends what they would like to see on it. They suggested a section about different types of moisture, understanding the types of acne and more.
“There were so many different types of acne and there’s a lot of misguided information on what acne you might have and some might not know,” Hill said.
She hopes to expand her app by covering other skin challenges like psoriasis and eczema, and adding healthy food recommendations to support skincare.
Ryan Rogers Jr., 15, developed an app at the camp called MKE Bridge, which gives residents access to resources like food pantries, shelters, clinics, events and job centers all in one spot.
“I feel like there’s been a disconnect in Milwaukee,” he said. “We can’t solve it all with one app, but I think just by helping a little bit, someone should be able to find a community with this.”
Though Rogers Jr., the son of Alexis and Ryan Rogers, often does coding for video games, he said he experienced a few prompting challenges with Base 44. He said because there were no real users using the app yet, he had to use AI to search the internet for existing content.
“If a community member posted they needed volunteers for something then Base 44 would search the internet and add it onto the app,” he said. “It was so difficult to do.”
He said he was shocked to see how much help people could get from his app just by using Base 44.
Rogers Jr., who completed the camp, said he wants his peers to do their own research and become knowledgeable about the good and bad of AI.
“You still need to be able to compensate for your own thoughts and ideas,” he said. “If all these things started to break down then you need to know the why behind it.”
Using Base 44 to elevate businesses
Kahlani Zawadi, 13, and creator and owner of Kahlani Kares, a slime and goo company, utilized the camp to create a business website and spread mental health awareness.
She launched Kahlani Kares when she was 11 to help others relieve stress.
“When I was younger I had problems controlling my emotions and I didn’t really have good resources,” she said.
When participating in the camp, she knew it would come easy because she has coding experience. But she didn’t know how she could incorporate Base 44 into her business.
Zawadi said her business never had a website so Base 44 created all its components.
“My homepage was red at first, but I wanted my color scheme to match so I just changed it,” Zawadi said.
Initially, Base 44 generated a logo for her business, but she was able to replace it with her own.
Zawadi appreciated the feedback she received from Alexis Rogers and her husband about her new website.
“They told me to fix things like my contact page and to create my own story page,” she said.
Zawadi encourages her peers to be open to trying new things, because they never know how it could help the community.
“Test AI based on things that you like,” she said. “Don’t say you don’t want to use it just because you’ve heard bad things about it.”
Hill once had bad views on using AI but that changed after seeing different outcomes for herself.
“I’m gonna have to grow with this, whether I like it or not,” she said. “I might as well get to know it instead of trying to move against it.”
Moving ethically
Alexis and Ryan Rogers didn’t want students to build without understanding that creating AI apps requires having trusted partners and professionals who can review their work.
The couple invited Sheena Driver, IT director and founder of Technology Support LLC; Que El-Amin, president of Scott Crawford Inc. and co-founder of Young Enterprising Society; and Steven Rogers, a local creative director, brand designer and AI innovator, to be instructors at the camp.
“It’s not just students doing this alone,” Alexis Rogers said. “It’s also about connecting with partners that will back you and support you to make sure you have the right tools and information out there.”
For Hill’s skin care app, she said she hopes to make connections with Amazon, Sephora, Ulta and other skin care brands.
“That way I can have some of their products on the app that people can look up and save into the website,” she said.
Watching students blossom
Throughout the camp, Alexis and Ryan Rogers found joy witnessing each student problem-solve a challenge that mattered to them.
“I’m glad we had the ability to allow youth in this age range to just dream and build,” Ryan Rogers said. “We’re at a point in history where creativity is really going to boom.”
Ryan Rogers said it’s important to hear from teens within urban communities because many community members don’t understand what they’re really capable of.
“I see such a huge market for teens to grow and let their voices be heard,” he said. “We don’t get a chance to hear their voices or see what they’re interested in.”
Click here to view the apps that other students made at the camp through Base 44.
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