Maximilian Dennison spends a lot of time in the city’s recreation centers, but he’s not there to shoot hoops or lift weights like many of the others who frequent these fitness facilities alongside him. As the City of Pittsburgh’s digital inclusion coordinator, Dennison visits rec centers across Pittsburgh to encourage children to pursue technology-related careers with the Rec2Tech program. By building out computer lab space within these rec centers, Dennison is then able to teach interested students how to code and will provide instruction to anyone who is interested in hopes that these lessons will inspire these children to learn more about a career in the tech industry.
Can you tell me about the intentionality behind wanting to teach kids how to code in a rec center?
There are a ton of kids that come to the recreation center that may not be into athletics. Maybe they like gaming, maybe they like art or maybe they like dance. We have young ladies that frequent the recreation center; maybe they want to do something different as well. So for the hundreds of kids that come to the recreation center, not all of them are athletes. Some just come to hang out. It’s almost like a safe space for them to come to after school if they don’t want to just go home because there’s not a lot of those spaces anymore, so they’ll come to the recreation center. And it was a light bulb moment when you say, “Okay, we have all of these kids in the recreation center, and a game of basketball is five people on both sides, right? So that’s 10 kids. What do those other 50 or 60 kids do while those guys are running up and down the courts waiting for nets?” The idea of creating a tech space where kids can say, “Hey, I like to watch basketball, but I don’t really play basketball or I like to lift weights, but that’s not all I do,” was the thought behind it and just to give them another option.
And that led you to where you are with the Rec2Tech initiative today?
If we could get 10 or 20 kids in here who really want to code, what’s next? What if they want to go to the next step with this? What if they want a degree in computer science? What if they want to go to a coding boot camp? What are the other options that we could provide? There’s All Star Code, there’s Black Girls Code, just other organizations that they can collaborate with us. Right now we have a partnership with Digital Harbor [Foundation] out of Baltimore. So there are other people doing the work that maybe we can make those connections and on-ramps to where the whole idea is just the exposure piece of it, to be able to say, “Hey, when I was 11 years old, I got to create my first program in Python that I may have never had an opportunity to create had I just kept going to the recreation center and the opportunity wasn’t there.” And I know for a fact that that’s not necessarily happening in all the schools, and I know it’s not happening at all in the other organizations.
What led you to this passion of working with children?
I think I’ve always worked with kids. It’s always come a little bit easy for me. I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more intentional with just the idea of going from just working with kids to how do we help the future, how do we be more intentional about the idea of working with students? You can be around kids for years and watch them make mistakes and watch them do the same things you did where you could be like “ah, I could have told you about that first.” It’s just like how can we be intentional and increase the trajectory of them having a sustainable outcome. Everything in life is about outcomes when we really look at it.
How do you start your day?
I get up at about 6:30 a.m. I try to go to the gym, maybe run for an hour, get a sweat, just get a good jog in for maybe an hour or two. It just helps me. I come back, take a hot shower, let the cold water run on me, too. I read something about how the freeze shocks your system and gets you going. After that I probably take my vitamins — B12, I’m heavy on B12 — and an energy drink and then I’m headed to the office. I don’t eat food before 12 p.m. Really I probably don’t eat food before 1 o’clock; it slows me down.
What’s your relationship with reading?
I like to read but specifically biographies. I don’t like reading general books. And I like self-help books. The last book I read was “Eat That Frog.” It was really good. It’s about not procrastinating. It was a really good book. If I’m not doing much, I’m probably reading.
Do you have a preferred baked good?
I like glazed donuts. If you’re in the City of Pittsburgh, there are two places you have to go. If you can get them fresh, first thing in the morning, Prantl’s Bakery in Shadyside and then there’s another place on Brownsville Road called Donut Connection, and I don’t know what they put in their donuts, but they’re really good.
If you could be anywhere on vacation right now, where is the first place that comes to mind?
Maldives. I haven’t been, but I have Instagram and that’s all it takes, right? I follow this guy — his name is Kemoy Martin — and his whole lifestyle, he’s built this lifestyle, where he literally just travels and shows people where to go. He comes up frequently on my Instagram and he’s in a new place. He’s in Saint Martin, he’s in Maldives, he’s in Thailand, and some of the cool places he goes I like to save and I say one day, I want to go there.
ABOUT MAXIMILIAN DENNISON:
Title: Digital inclusion coordinator, City of Pittsburgh
Age: 40
First job: Construction
Residence: North Shore, Pittsburgh
Education: Bachelor’s, political science, Point Park University
Hobbies: Chess, boxing, reading biographies
Causes: Tech education, the wealth gap
