Michelle Sun
Michelle Sun | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hong Kong |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Founder of First Code Academy |
Michelle Sun (; born ) is an entrepreneur from Hong Kong of Chinese descent. She is the founder of First Code Academy, a coding school for K-12 students based in Hong Kong that instructs children starting from age four in programming and mobile app development. The academy has expanded across six Asian cities, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, delivering courses within both educational institutions and corporate environments.
Early life and education
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Sun demonstrated strong academic performance by achieving nine A grades in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination while attending St Paul's Convent School. She pursued higher education at the University of Chicago, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics.
In 2012, she completed an intensive three-month coding bootcamp at Hackbright Academy in San Francisco, a program exclusively for women.
Sun further enhanced her expertise by graduating in 2016 from the Master Trainers program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which prepares educators to teach programming skills to K-12 learners.
Goldman Sachs
Between 2007 and 2010, Sun held the role of financial research analyst at Goldman Sachs, focusing on the Telecom, Media, and Internet sectors.
Early ventures
In 2011, she initiated her first entrepreneurial project—a mobile loyalty startup linking merchants with customers through a rewards application. This venture inspired her to acquire programming skills.
Silicon Valley startup experience
Following her time at Hackbright Academy, Sun gained experience working with Silicon Valley startups such as Bump Technologies and Buffer, where she was appointed as their inaugural growth hacker. Her weekend volunteer work teaching coding to middle school girls in San Francisco motivated her to create her own educational institution.
First Code Academy
Sun established First Code Academy in Hong Kong in 2013, originally offering workshops exclusively for girls. The program soon broadened to include boys and girls aged four to eighteen, covering fundamental to advanced subjects like Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence. The academy aimed to fill the gap in effective K-12 coding education by equipping students with competencies essential for thriving in a technology-oriented economy. Sun championed coding proficiency for all children and sought to boost female involvement in STEM fields to enhance workplace diversity. After starting in Hong Kong, the academy expanded its presence to Taiwan, Macau, and Singapore. Sun emphasized empowering girls to excel in traditionally male-dominated areas such as coding and entrepreneurship while fostering growth mindset attributes like resilience and optimism among students. Due to financial strains caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, First Code Academy discontinued operations on May 31, 2022.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
In 2017, Sun contributed as a guest lecturer for MIT’s Master Trainers program dedicated to preparing educators for teaching coding skills to K-12 students.
Advocacy
Sun is a co-founder of the Women Who Code chapter in Hong Kong and serves on the council of the Hong Kong Women's Foundation, promoting gender equality within the technology sector. She regards Women Who Code as a valuable network providing support, guidance, and resource sharing for women working in tech fields.
Honors and awards
In 2015, the BBC honored Sun as one of the "30 Under 30 Women Entrepreneurs," and in 2016, she was featured by Forbes in their "30 Under 30 in Asia" list. Additionally, she was awarded the Woman of Hope distinction for entrepreneurship in both 2014 and 2015.