Zalman Blau, 21, college student

When Zalman Blau earned his Regents diploma from the Chovevei Torah yeshiva in Crown Heights four years ago, he wanted to go on to study computer coding. There was just one problem when he enrolled at college last year.

“I couldn’t put together a proper English sentence,” said Blau. “I didn’t know a verb from an adjective.”

As a yeshiva student, when it comes to the English language, “you’re technically illiterate,” Blau said. Things were no better in his Lubavitch home, where he is one of 13 children: “If it wasn’t Jewish, it wasn’t in my house. Only Jewish books were allowed.”

Although one of his sisters tried to school him herself —“She taught me addition and multiplication” — it didn’t go very far. “My parents wanted me to get a truly Jewish education.”

Blau knew that the rabbinic path of his classmates wasn’t for him. But he was missing the foundation to pursue almost anything else: “Even a basic book in computer science requires [knowledge of] at least algebra.”

Determined, he spent months on an application essay for the Flatiron School, a tech institution that offers courses in Web development and coding — and made a virtue of his situation. “I spoke about my passion for coding and my story about getting my high-school diploma [despite] basically knowing nothing,” Blau said. Yeshiva students are rarely given a high-school diploma, but can request one and then attend an extra year of classes. Of the 20 boys in his yeshiva class, Blau said, “Technically, most of them don’t have a high-school diploma.” Blau, who lives with his grandmother in Crown Heights, is now studying for an associate’s degree in math at Borough of Manhattan Community College and dreams of following that up with a four-year computer-science degree. “I started [college] not knowing where to put a period,” he admitted of his knowledge foundation. “At this point, there are still gaps, but it’s manageable.” But he doesn’t want other yeshiva students to face the same challenges as him. “I know [yeshiva administrators are] afraid of what kind of sex education they’re going to give the kids or have problems with evolutionary theory,” he said of fears about secular education. “But there’s nothing controversial about the Pythagorean theorem or putting together an English sentence.”

I couldn’t [write] a proper English sentence. I didn’t know a verb from an adjective.