Second Voice

The Language of Innovation

John, Grade 7, clearly remembers the day he was introduced to coding. He was eight years old and visiting a friend when he wandered by his friend’s brother’s room where he saw endless lines of code running down the computer screen. He was mesmerized— and asked his friend’s brother to teach him basic Java. From there, he taught himself other traditional computer languages and new platforms as well.

From this early beginning, John has built many games which are available on platforms like itch.io and Steam.

In 2019, John received an invitation to Apple Park in California where he met one-on-one with senior vice president of software engineering at Apple Inc. Craig Federighi. John stayed in touch with Craig who provides him with regular feedback on his latest project, the Second Voice app.

Inspired by children he has met who cannot speak, John designed an app to help them express themselves using emojis. The user selects an emoji which plays a voice that says either a corresponding word or phrase, such as “I love you.” John recorded both male and female voices so that users could have choice. He is currently in talks with Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital to distribute his app to children who would benefit from it.

John likes to use his coding experience for his Global Leadership Program projects as well. For example, last year when he worked on a project to protect lionfish, he created a Java program to display a lionfish in console game style, which would include facts about lionfish when users hit certain buttons.

In the future, John hopes to work in a field that integrates therapy and technology, like his app Second Voice, or in a big four game development studio.