Over the past two years, I’ve watched more than 200 student projects take shape. Some were small and scrappy. Some were polished and bold. All of them taught me something.

The biggest thing? Students don’t need to be told what to build—they need room to try. I’ve seen projects born from personal frustrations, curiosity, boredom, even jokes. One team built a tool to auto-generate math memes. Another tracked food waste at school cafeterias. Both were equally serious in their own way.

The best ideas didn’t always come from the most advanced coders. In fact, some of the most impactful projects came from first-timers who didn’t know the “right” way to do something—and so found their own. That’s something school doesn’t always reward, but Pebble does.

I’ve also seen failure. Projects that crashed. Teams that disagreed. Ideas that were too ambitious. But none of that was wasted. In most cases, those students came back stronger next time. The willingness to keep going after a rough start is more impressive than a perfect pitch.

What surprised me most is how personal these projects get. A reminder app for siblings. A language-learning game for a grandparent. A budgeting tool for students who felt overlooked. Behind every project was a reason that mattered to the person building it.

If you give students trust, they surprise you. If you give them tools, they build more than you expect. And when you build alongside them—not above them—you get to see what education could be.

That’s why I keep showing up.

— Arnav Bonigala (President of Pebble Education)