Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2016 - (Page 34)

Paving the Way to Careers in Tech by Imani Taylor I had no computer science background when a family friend told me about the Girls Who Code (GWC) Summer Immersion Program, a free, intensive seven-week program for high school girls. But I've always had an affinity for math and thought I'd pursue a STEM career, so I decided to give it a try. In February 2014 I sent in my application, essays, and letters of recommendation from my math and science teachers. I knew that the program was very competitive, so I was surprised and excited to receive an acceptance email in April. As one of 375 girls accepted that year, I would learn coding at one of several leading tech companies: Facebook, Twitter, Square, Intel, and Intuit were among my choices. I selected Facebook because it was the company that I knew the most about as a user, and, because it is close to where I live, I would be able to take the Facebook shuttle to and from the campus every day. Focus, Fun, Repeat Beginning in mid-June, I spent every weekday from 9:00 to 4:00 on the Facebook campus with 19 other girls, learning about robotics, computer programming, web design algorithms, and mobile development. We were each assigned a mentor, an engineer at Facebook who met with us periodically over the summer, but we spent more time with our teacher and TAs, who taught us programming techniques. We started out with Scratch, a program that allowed us to learn coding concepts without actually writing any code. Later we moved on to languages including Python, JavaScript, and HTML and CSS. The work was intense and challenging, but we took breaks throughout the day to go outside and play games to refuel before going back to our computers. Another girl and I were even allowed to bring our skateboards to campus and skate around the courtyard during lunch. That pattern of focused learning punctuated by fun and physical breaks was effective, and after six weeks, we were ready to apply what we'd learned. In small groups, we spent the last week of the program working on our final projects. After brainstorming ideas, 34 imagine Imani's group worked on an app called AutoText, which addresses the problem of texting while driving. my group of five decided to create a web app to address the problem of texting and driving. Many people text and drive just to inform someone that they are on their way or almost there. Our web app, AutoText, prevents this by sending updates about the user's location and distance from the destination. Before starting the trip, the user enters his or her current location and destination, along with the recipient's phone number. AutoText then sends preset texts while the user is driving. Creating the web app was definitely a challenge. Because we had only a week to get it done, we divided up the work-but this meant that we were never all working on the same thing at the same time. There were many different components to creating this app, ranging from the design of the logo to integrating the Tropo and Google Maps APIs; I myself spent a lot of time working on the contacts section. We shared our work in a presentation at graduation, where each group presented their project. Other groups' projects included a verbal door-unlocking mechanism, an app that helps students study, and a keyboard with keys made of paint. It was incredible to see what we'd all accomplished in such a short time. Jan/Feb 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2016

Big Picture
In My Own Words CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.
My Summer of Medicine Three ways of exploring healthcare
Teens Target: Public Health How high school students are solving real-world public health problems
Slowing the Race Addressing antibiotic resistance
For the Greater Good Majoring in public health
Epic Epidemics Studying History of Disease at CTY
Teen Health is Public Health Interview with Beth Marshall, Associate Director, Center for Adolescent Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Building Bridges Addressing health disparities through service
Becoming a Disease Detective Behind the scenes at the CDC
Finding Light in the Darkness Astrophysics at UCSC SIP
Girls Who Code Paving the way to careers in tech
Selected Opportunities and Resources
Off the Shelf Review of Iris Chang’s The Chinese in America
Word Wise
Exploring Career Options Interview with epidemiologist Christine Scott-Waldron, M.S.P.H.
One Step Ahead Summer in limbo
Planning Ahead for College Is medical school in your future?
Students Review: Tufts University
Creative Minds Imagine Essay contest winners
Mark Your Calendar
Knossos Games

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2016