He’s 15, and graduating from high school and community college. Meet the coding whiz of the Lehigh Valley

Not many 15-year-olds graduate both high school and community college. Jack Wagenheim did just that, and he’s teaching people how to code along the way.

A soon-to-be graduate of Northampton Community College from Lehigh Township, he’s completed high school and an associate degree in business administration, taught classes and developed games. But you won’t find him on the roads driving just yet.

“I might not get my permit immediately,” admitted Wagenheim, who turns 16 this month.

Wagenheim typically spends four to five hours a day programming and coding. Despite his abilities, he says there’s a lot to learn.

“As your confidence level goes up, eventually it takes a dip because you realize you don’t know everything,” he said. “I thought I was past ‘the bump’ last year and now I realize I know so much more now than I did one year ago.”

At just 5 years old, Wagenheim created an app called Happy Travels with his family.

“I drew all the art for it … my dad programmed it, and my mom helped scan all my art into the game and supervised everything,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to make games since then.”

Another one of his apps worked on with his dad in 2021, Glass Break, saw approximately 1.3 million plays across the globe. But his first game on his own, which launched in early 2023, was Pause People.

“Not the best concept and not the best execution, but all the programming was done completely by me,” he said of the game.

Wagenheim was homeschooled as part of the Fireside program until the COVID-19 pandemic. He then studied via the Mason Dixon Homeschoolers program, while taking some in-person classes at Northampton Community College.

One class particularly inspired Wagenheim years ago. He planned to take dual enrollment credits to help him graduate high school but then went on to finish an associate degree.

“I took five classes in my first semester [at Northampton] and I really enjoyed it, and I had an amazing Intro to Communications professor,” Wagenheim said.

“That was my first in-person class,” he said.

Wagenheim ended up with 49 credits and a 4.0 GPA, both in homeschool and community college.

The heart of Wagenheim’s gaming and programming originates from Roblox, where gamers can find his username, ItchyBarn. ItchyBarn is also the username for his Facebook page, in which he frequently updates followers with his progress on games that he programs.

He’s programmed multiple games on his own in Roblox, the online game platform that allows users to program their own games, which he calls “his main platform right now.”

The latest game to release for Wagenheim is a competitive version of Minesweeper in Roblox. The original Minesweeper is a logic puzzle video game released in 1989.

Wagenheim thought it would be interesting to add concepts to Minesweeper in his unique game. He said the game would be released soon.

“I was like ‘Well, how do I put a competitive spin on this?’ And that’s what I really love about programming,” Wagenheim said. “Once you’re good at it, you can make anything you want.”

With knowledge and experience, Wagenheim passes his expertise to the even younger generation. He runs a coding class called “Coding for Kids by Jack” — it features private classes and group classes. What started in early 2022 as teaching four students, soon evolved into over 30 students.

“I wanted something interesting for myself, but also something where I knew I was adding to other people,” he said. A typical class size includes three or four students during a one-hour session, Wagenheim said.

“My age range from my classes is 8 to 12, but if older students want to join my classes as well, I’m totally good with that,” he said. He’ll start teaching summer classes June 17.

As for ItchyBarn, the story behind the username is simple.

“It was just a random name generator,” Wagenheim said. He was randomly given a username for a chess app he used to play. “And that stuck for probably upward of 11 or 12 years now.”

Going forward, Wagenheim will pursue a double major in business administration and computer science at Moravian University. He cited a potential business degree as an asset for a programming business in the future.

“It has a really amazing community and it’s a nice campus,” Wagenheim said of the college. Wagenheim, while praising its computer science program, also cited his mother’s being a Moravian alum.

“It feels like the right fit for me,” he continued. “I looked around a couple of other universities as well, but I’m trying to stay closer to home.”

As for his college commute, which is 20 minutes away from his home, he said he’ll perhaps drive to college in the future.

While Wagenheim wants to keep teaching students during his next chapter at Moravian, he encourages anyone to try out coding and stay confident throughout the process.

“Don’t get frustrated when it doesn’t work out immediately, because learning programming is very long term,” he said. “You can learn the basics, but you got to stick with it to be able to create the masterpieces that you want to be able to create later.”