At the end of August, Patrick McConologue, a 23-year-old New York City software engineer, had an idea as he passed the same homeless man on his way to work every day.
The proposal
He decided he wanted to proposition the man, offering him a choice of either $100 in cash or eight weeks of coding lessons.
McConologue took to the Internet and wrote about his idea where he was bombarded with much criticism for turning a man into a “project” and “experiment,” but still McConologue approached the man the next day with his proposal.
He said “yes”
To McConologue’s delight, the homeless man, who goes by the name Leo, agreed to the coding lessons (even though he didn’t know what coding was, he was eager to learn something new that could potentially open new doors for him).
Leo (left) and Patrick McConologue (right) began coding lessons in the park in August. (Image via Journeyman)
McConologue ordered Leo, who lost his job at MetLife back in 2011, a Samsung Chromebook with 3G and three Javascript books and agreed to meet him every weekday before he went to work for one-hour sessions. (You can track Leo’s progress on the Journeyman Facebook page.)
Environmental app ready to launch
After just a few days of lessons, McConologue discovered that Leo had a real interest in environmental issues, so it was decided that Leo would build a mobile app to prompt social environmental change. It would be “a tech product that helps people make smaller changes for the greater good,” according to the Journeyman Facebook page.
Now, in just over 40 days, Leo’s app, “Go Green,” is almost ready to launch. Currently, McConologue and Leo are not revealing specific details about the app.
Leo thinks up some ideas for his environment-changing mobile app. (Image via Journeyman)
In order to test his upcoming app, Linux Foundation venture called the Tizen Project, sent Leo a developer edition Samsung phone.
Leo with his special developer cellphone. (Image via Journeyman)
They aren’t just coding in the park
In an interview with Business Insider, Leo revealed that he was making the trip to the Google offices in New York City with McMonologue, where they would conduct a live Hangout video chat with the tech news source Mashable.
In the weeks that the duo have been working together, Leo’s skills have improved so much that Leo spent the past weekend alongside 60 NYC engineers using technology to put together a learning tools that can make an impact on the world.
The future
Although we don’t know exactly what Leo’s app is all about, McConologue eluded to some big things happening for Leo on the Journeyman page. “Who wants to see Leo on TV? There are some really amazing things happening, but more to come on that,” he wrote.
Unfortunately, on Monday, October 14, Leo was arrested for trespassing 20 minutes before his lesson. McConologue went down to the police station to try to get him released in time for his appearance Wednesday on NBC’s The Today Show .
According to his Facebook page, even though McConologue can show a receipt for the laptop, the police are still confiscating it, so it looks like lessons will be on hold for a while.
Still, Leo has done all of this with just over 40 days of coding lessons. And you thought coding was hard?
Keep updated with the status of Leo’s release on the Journeyman Facebook page.
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