Future Innovators Explore AI and Coding at Melaleuca’s 2025 IT Boot Camp

Each summer, Melaleuca gives back to the community by investing in the next generation of technology leaders. As part of its long-standing commitment to education, Melaleuca hosted the 2025 IT Boot Camp at its Global Headquarters—offering high school students a free weeklong dive into web development, coding, app creation, and even artificial intelligence.

To provide top-tier instruction, Melaleuca again brought in Nathan Birch, a former BYU–Idaho computer information technology professor who now works as a software engineer at a tech startup. Melaleuca’s own IT executives also taught sessions, shared personal experiences, and mentored the students throughout the week.

This unique combination gave the students both academic expertise and real-world perspective from professionals who run one of North America’s largest e-commerce sites.

Learning at the Speed of Innovation

Under the direction of Professor Nathan Birch, students spent the week building personal profile websites and enhancing them with interactive features such as games, story prompts, family history pages, and more. For many, it was their first taste of professional-level coding—and the results were inspiring.

Over the last three years of the IT boot camp, AI has played a key role in the curriculum. And this year was no different. If anything, AI has never been more relevant, but it can be a double-edged sword. One student who copied and pasted code generated by AI quickly discovered more than 900 errors, learning firsthand that while AI is a powerful tool, it cannot replace human judgment and problem solving.

“Students have more tools to generate code, but they need to understand what’s happening behind it,” said Professor Birch. “AI has really taken off. Now, what once took months can be built in a week. That accelerated pace keeps students excited because they can quickly see where their skills can take them.”

Projects as Unique as the Students

From farming simulators to classic arcade-style games, each student’s project reflected their own personality and interests:

• Alexa built a story-prompt generator, surprising herself with how much fun she had. “At first, I wasn’t interested,” she admitted, “but this turned out to be such a great opportunity. I even learned how to fix broken code.”
• Kaelyn appreciated the challenge of problem-solving. “I never got bored,” she said. “There were always good resources, and I never felt alone.”
• Colton created a Pokémon-themed Flappy Bird game, discovering he could use AI more effectively than he expected. “The teacher explained AI really well,” he said.
• Bruce took things further with a 2D physics engine, drawing on his prior coding experience. “I like sandboxing things,” he said. “It was awesome to get help from the teacher, the TAs, and the other students.”
• Ellemeier turned a simple maze game into something more challenging by adding levels and even animations for the player-controlled character.

Building Confidence for America’s Future Leaders

For many of these bright young students, the most valuable takeaway was not necessarily the finished project itself but the confidence gained to tackle new challenges, or even to pursue IT and coding at the university level. Whether they were fixing AI-generated code, experimenting with physics, or designing an e-commerce concept, students left the boot camp with a deeper sense of what’s possible in the IT industry.

“These students are motivated, involved, and invested,” said Professor Birch. 

Melaleuca’s Ongoing Commitment

Melaleuca created the IT Boot Camp several years ago to encourage the rising generation to explore opportunities in science and technology. As one of North America’s largest e-commerce companies, Melaleuca relies heavily on IT to serve millions of customers worldwide, making it uniquely positioned to mentor students in this growing field.

By offering the camp at no cost, bringing in expert instructors, and providing hands-on training alongside its own IT executives, Melaleuca: The Wellness Company is investing in both students’ futures and the future of Idaho’s technology community.