Dozens of high school students were logging on – from New York City to Topeka, Kansas, to Waipahu, Hawaii – for an unusual Stanford award ceremony: These teenagers, all from Title 1 high schools serving low-income communities, were the first cohort to complete a Stanford introductory computer science course offered to high school students through the nonprofit National Education Equity Lab.
Students at Birmingham Community Charter High School in Los Angeles, California, were one of 15 high school classes nationwide to take a novel Stanford computer science course. (Image credit: William Youngblood)
The Dec. 13 Zoom gathering marked this milestone for the students with parents, teachers and others from Stanford and the Ed Equity Lab joining the celebration. The students had passed “Computer Science 105: Introduction to Computers,” earning both college and high school credits.
“You are all a part of the Stanford family now,” said the honorary guest speaker, Jason Collins ’01, the Cardinal All-American basketball star who played 13 seasons in the NBA. Collins surprised the students with a personal note: He had taken the same course while at Stanford. “I know exactly how hard this class is, the class that you went through,” he said. “I can’t wait to see what you will be doing 10 years from now.”
College-level expectations, high school-level support
Stanford Digital Education, a unit in the provost’s office launched last fall to promote innovative learning opportunities benefiting the public good, organized the course as a pilot project with the Department of Computer Science and the Graduate School of Education’s Transforming Learning Accelerator.
CS 105 had the same learning outcomes and assessments as the on-campus version taken by undergraduates on campus. “This is the exact same material that I offered this very quarter to my Stanford students,” said Patrick Young, the lecturer in the computer science department who leads both iterations of the course. They did vary in one respect: Ed Equity Lab’s CS 105 provided support tailored to the needs of high school students. The section leaders understood that they had to work closely with the classroom teachers to help develop college-level study habits for the high schoolers, in addition to teaching the required material about coding and web building. “College-level rigor with high-school-level support,” Young said.
The course was demanding. Vihan Lakshman ’16, MS ’18, should know: He took a similar introductory course as a freshman. Speaking as part of the ceremony, Lakshman, who led a CS 105 section for a high school class in Casa Grande, Arizona, acknowledged that the class “moved really fast [and] covered a huge amount of material.” And it was about much more than coding. The students also learned the skills they would need to succeed in college. They showed the “grit and perseverance to get through those inevitable bumps in the road and stick with it,” said Lakshman, one of a number of alumni involved in the course who had studied computer science at Stanford.
Local teachers met with CS 105 students several times per week at their schools – 15 in eight states – to support active learning and problem-solving in person. The lectures, given by Young, were recorded in advance. Stanford alumni and student teaching fellows such as Lakshman held weekly online discussion sections and office hours and were responsible for grading the high school students’ work and awarding college credits for those who passed.
At the start of the class in September, Ty Torres, a sophomore at Birmingham Community Charter High School in Los Angeles, was nervous. He wound up acing the class. “This course has affected me a lot by challenging me in ways I’ve never thought before,” he told his peers at the ceremony. “I would work on things for, like, forever.” His final project, a website on Super Smash Brothers Ultimate Fighters Pass 2, is now available for viewing in an online project showcase on the Stanford website.
Another student, Janet Perez, a junior at All City Leadership School in Brooklyn, New York, spoke at the Zoom gathering, calling the course fun and difficult. She said she feels more ready for college because of the course. “This opportunity gave me a real insight into what a competitive college course looks and feels like,” she said in remarks at the ceremony. “And it’s given me confidence when looking at colleges [where] I want to apply.”
Building a national consortium of dual-enrollment courses
Founded in 2019, the National Education Equity Lab is designing, testing, and implementing new scalable strategies to help universities play a more active role in developing and identifying the next generation of scholars and leaders. Stanford is among the nation’s leading universities that are working with the nonprofit to provide online college credit-bearing courses in teacher-led high school classrooms in 32 states at no cost to students.
Leslie Cornfeld, Ed Equity Lab CEO, told the students that they were blazing a new trail for others to follow. “This was a pilot with Stanford, and you proved that this needs to be expanded,” she said. Students’ success in the course affirmed the nonprofit’s mission of providing college-level courses to students who can excel if only given the chance. “You have proven that talent is evenly distributed in our country, but opportunity is not, and you are changing that,” she said.
Stanford will expand the Ed Equity Lab partnership in winter and spring quarters to include a Structured Liberal Education course and a writing course, that will be offered to Title 1 high schools in the Lab’s network.
What follows are reflections from Perez, Torres and five other students who completed CS 105.
Frida Gonzalez, 15, sophomore at Birmingham Community Charter High School, Los Angeles
Anna Paguirigan, 17, senior at Waipahu High School, Hawaii
Oscar Herrera, 16, junior at Birmingham Community Charter High School, Los Angeles
Ty Torres, 15, sophomore at Birmingham Community Charter High School
Janet Perez, 16, a junior at All City Leadership Secondary School in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Macy Ruiz, 15, sophomore at Birmingham Community Charter High School
Justin Eugene Natividad, 18, senior at Waipahu High School, Hawaii
Frida Gonzalez
Frida Gonzalez (Image credit: Lindsay Humphrey, Birmingham Community Charter High School)
I was drawn to taking CS 105 because it was a Stanford class, and Stanford is one of the top schools that I would like to go to.
I live in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles with my mom and my dad. They are both from Mexico and came to the United States when they were young. They had to start working at an early age to support themselves and their families, so they didn’t get much education. My dad never graduated middle school, and my mom didn’t go to college. My parents always encouraged me to do well in school, my mom especially, she had always told me that her dream was for me to attend University. That influenced me to do everything I can to make that dream come true.
I considered not taking this course because I was afraid that I would be unsatisfactory in the class. I didn’t want to take a course that was so random. I knew nothing about computer science. I had never met anyone in the field and the only thing I knew about computer science was what I saw in the movies about hacking. But I realized even if I didn’t do well, I would at least learn something new. And I actually had fun doing it.
I liked working with HTML and CSS. I felt that I had freedom with it, and I could be creative. In the second assignment, we were just thrown into using them and were told to figure out how to make it work for real. The class had taught us about them, but we had to learn for ourselves how to do it. I was lost at first. I spent hours trying different things. I didn’t get up from my chair for two hours, and my head started hurting. I was having a really awful time trying to figure out how to make it work. And then a light bulb literally went off in my brain. I was like, “Hunh, that could work.” After I understood it, I was able to design my web page to look however I wanted. I set the background color to pink. I thought that part of the course was really enjoyable. I would put on my headphones and just type, it was like I was transported to another world where I could do anything. It made me feel like I was doing something cool like if I was hacking in an action movie.
Later I struggled with Python. It felt like we had to learn everything over again. Python was different from and much harder than HTML and CSS. You have to think about your inputs and outputs. If you do something wrong and have an error, it doesn’t work. In homework assignment #5 in which you had to use Python to calculate the cost of goods after a sales tax and discount was implemented. I was okay at first, but I grew frustrated when I came to the sales tax part. I was really lost. So, I asked my mom, who is good with numbers. She explained it to me, and I understood it. I was so glad. I started typing the code, and it worked out. The output was correct. I was really happy that I had figured it out with her help.
Now that I have completed my final project and taken the final exam, I can say that I really enjoyed it. CS 105 was a new experience, and it was hard. Everything new is hard for people. But it changed my perspective about myself and about the world. I used to think that most things that were new were bad. However, after taking a course on something I knew nothing about, I realized that isn’t right. I learned something new and noticed that I have become more confident. I realized that I can do anything I put my mind to.
Frida Gonzalez
Frida Gonzalez (Image credit: Lindsay Humphrey, Birmingham Community Charter High School)
I was drawn to taking CS 105 because it was a Stanford class, and Stanford is one of the top schools that I would like to go to.
I live in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles with my mom and my dad. They are both from Mexico and came to the United States when they were young. They had to start working at an early age to support themselves and their families, so they didn’t get much education. My dad never graduated middle school, and my mom didn’t go to college. My parents always encouraged me to do well in school, my mom especially, she had always told me that her dream was for me to attend University. That influenced me to do everything I can to make that dream come true.
I considered not taking this course because I was afraid that I would be unsatisfactory in the class. I didn’t want to take a course that was so random. I knew nothing about computer science. I had never met anyone in the field and the only thing I knew about computer science was what I saw in the movies about hacking. But I realized even if I didn’t do well, I would at least learn something new. And I actually had fun doing it.
I liked working with HTML and CSS. I felt that I had freedom with it, and I could be creative. In the second assignment, we were just thrown into using them and were told to figure out how to make it work for real. The class had taught us about them, but we had to learn for ourselves how to do it. I was lost at first. I spent hours trying different things. I didn’t get up from my chair for two hours, and my head started hurting. I was having a really awful time trying to figure out how to make it work. And then a light bulb literally went off in my brain. I was like, “Hunh, that could work.” After I understood it, I was able to design my web page to look however I wanted. I set the background color to pink. I thought that part of the course was really enjoyable. I would put on my headphones and just type, it was like I was transported to another world where I could do anything. It made me feel like I was doing something cool like if I was hacking in an action movie.
Later I struggled with Python. It felt like we had to learn everything over again. Python was different from and much harder than HTML and CSS. You have to think about your inputs and outputs. If you do something wrong and have an error, it doesn’t work. In homework assignment #5 in which you had to use Python to calculate the cost of goods after a sales tax and discount was implemented. I was okay at first, but I grew frustrated when I came to the sales tax part. I was really lost. So, I asked my mom, who is good with numbers. She explained it to me, and I understood it. I was so glad. I started typing the code, and it worked out. The output was correct. I was really happy that I had figured it out with her help.
Now that I have completed my final project and taken the final exam, I can say that I really enjoyed it. CS 105 was a new experience, and it was hard. Everything new is hard for people. But it changed my perspective about myself and about the world. I used to think that most things that were new were bad. However, after taking a course on something I knew nothing about, I realized that isn’t right. I learned something new and noticed that I have become more confident. I realized that I can do anything I put my mind to.
Anna Paguirigan
Anna Paguirigan (Image credit: Courtesy of Anna Paguirigan)
All my four years in high school, I have been determined to become an entrepreneur. I took almost all the business classes our school offered, and during that time I have also been taking courses in Early College [a program in which high school students can enroll in community college]. I am now on track to graduate high school with my associate’s degree.
I was born and raised in the Philippines. We moved after my dad got a job here and started a new chapter in our lives. We have a lot of members in our household: from my grandparents to my parents to my younger brother and sister and me. This is common here in Hawai’i since we are large on our families. Also, the state’s cost of living is higher than most of the country. The members of my family don’t have high-paying jobs. They work in fast-food restaurants. My mom works as a teacher’s assistant, and my dad just recently got a new job managing the parking lot at a car dealership after losing his old one during the pandemic. It’s been a “must” for me to go to college from the start of high school. My parents expect my siblings and me to go to college. Our conversations about my future continue to inspire me to do my best. I’m beyond blessed to be where I am today, praise God.
I knew that I was interested in the introduction to computers course. Maybe it was because of my love of working in the sound booth for our church, Cathedral of Praise Hawaii. I saw CS 105 as an opportunity to further learn about technology. I was wary that a Stanford course would be too rigorous. I already had a handful of activities and things to do because it was my senior year. But I wanted to try something different.
The content I learned opened a new way of thinking for me. This class taught me how a different world works, a virtual world. Sometimes, as I learned to code and to make websites, I felt like I was doing something illegal. I could see how the web worked behind the scenes. It showed me how it’s possible to create whatever I can think of with no limits. It helped that the teachers at Stanford and National Education Equity Lab gave us such a welcoming, open, and supportive environment. I saw how important it was to ask for help and that allowed me to do my best.
I have applied to the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and West Oahu for next year. Right now, I’m leaning more towards West Oahu just because they have a specific bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity. This course did shift my goals. I now imagine myself having a career in computer science as well as being an entrepreneur. I’d like to go to Stanford for a Master’s degree. I hadn’t thought about graduate school in computer science before this class. I just needed a push and a small window to see my potential.
Anna Paguirigan
Anna Paguirigan (Image credit: Courtesy of Anna Paguirigan)
All my four years in high school, I have been determined to become an entrepreneur. I took almost all the business classes our school offered, and during that time I have also been taking courses in Early College [a program in which high school students can enroll in community college]. I am now on track to graduate high school with my associate’s degree.
I was born and raised in the Philippines. We moved after my dad got a job here and started a new chapter in our lives. We have a lot of members in our household: from my grandparents to my parents to my younger brother and sister and me. This is common here in Hawai’i since we are large on our families. Also, the state’s cost of living is higher than most of the country. The members of my family don’t have high-paying jobs. They work in fast-food restaurants. My mom works as a teacher’s assistant, and my dad just recently got a new job managing the parking lot at a car dealership after losing his old one during the pandemic. It’s been a “must” for me to go to college from the start of high school. My parents expect my siblings and me to go to college. Our conversations about my future continue to inspire me to do my best. I’m beyond blessed to be where I am today, praise God.
I knew that I was interested in the introduction to computers course. Maybe it was because of my love of working in the sound booth for our church, Cathedral of Praise Hawaii. I saw CS 105 as an opportunity to further learn about technology. I was wary that a Stanford course would be too rigorous. I already had a handful of activities and things to do because it was my senior year. But I wanted to try something different.
The content I learned opened a new way of thinking for me. This class taught me how a different world works, a virtual world. Sometimes, as I learned to code and to make websites, I felt like I was doing something illegal. I could see how the web worked behind the scenes. It showed me how it’s possible to create whatever I can think of with no limits. It helped that the teachers at Stanford and National Education Equity Lab gave us such a welcoming, open, and supportive environment. I saw how important it was to ask for help and that allowed me to do my best.
I have applied to the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and West Oahu for next year. Right now, I’m leaning more towards West Oahu just because they have a specific bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity. This course did shift my goals. I now imagine myself having a career in computer science as well as being an entrepreneur. I’d like to go to Stanford for a Master’s degree. I hadn’t thought about graduate school in computer science before this class. I just needed a push and a small window to see my potential.
Oscar Herrera
Oscar Herrera (Image credit: Lindsay Humphrey, Birmingham Community Charter High School)
When I first heard about a college computer science class being offered at my high school, I immediately knew I wanted to do it. I didn’t even know it was a Stanford class. It was supposed to be only for 10th graders, but I asked to be let in. Stanford has been my dream school since my freshman year. Finding out I could take a class with them was amazing. It was a call out to me specifically since I had spent so much time during the past summer watching YouTube videos of students’ reactions after getting into Stanford.
I want to be the first in my family to finish college, but honestly, I’m afraid of not knowing what to do and who I can fall back on for help when I start. I worry that I’m going to be playing catch up with classmates whose parents, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters are doctors. I want to be an anesthesiologist or a cardiologist and be able to provide for my kids. I want my mom to be able to be an old lady, just be at home and not have to worry about where her next meal is coming from. College is the way I can make it.
Still, I considered not taking this course. I was afraid that it would be too overwhelming for me. I have a schedule packed with rigorous courses. I am taking eight classes – CS 105, a community college class, three AP classes, one honors class, one regular class, and an ASB (Associated Student Body) leadership class. On top of this, I have a lot of extra-curricular activities. Some weekends, I didn’t get a chance to do any of my homework until Sunday morning because I was at a wrestling tournament on Friday and Saturday or I had events to prepare for ASB. I knew it would be a challenge to maintain the 4.0 GPA I earned in 9th and 10th grade, but I knew I had to take this opportunity.
Early on in CS 105, I was reminded that it was a college class, and I could drop it if I wanted to. After getting the first assignment, I remembered that. I made mistakes and spent a lot of time identifying and fixing them. Elina, the teaching fellow, told us that our code is not always going to be perfect and that we will make mistakes. Throughout the semester, instead of criticizing a mistake or an uncertainty, she embraced them, so I decided that I wanted to stay in the class. While I did overwhelm myself this fall semester by taking so many rigorous classes, I still passed all of them. Although I don’t have my 4.0 anymore, I worked my hardest and did the absolute best that I could have done. This course helped me to understand that I don’t need to be perfect. So I just want to learn now and just be comfortable with learning.
CS 105 humbled me but made me feel better about myself at the same time. The class helped me learn how college actually works because it moved really fast and required more independence, which at first made me panic. Before, I felt a lot of fear during assignments, a feeling in my stomach, it just made me nervous. The course took me out of my comfort zone. But I grew, so now my comfort zone is a lot bigger than my panic zone. The class made me more comfortable with the transition from high school to college. In CS 105, I did what I could, and I did pretty well. I took the same class as current Stanford students, and I passed the same class as them, at 16. I could handle it, so I think I’m going to do pretty well at college. After this class, for the first time, I feel like I can do it, like I have a good chance of getting in and succeeding at Stanford or another top-ranked school.
Oscar Herrera
Oscar Herrera (Image credit: Lindsay Humphrey, Birmingham Community Charter High School)
When I first heard about a college computer science class being offered at my high school, I immediately knew I wanted to do it. I didn’t even know it was a Stanford class. It was supposed to be only for 10th graders, but I asked to be let in. Stanford has been my dream school since my freshman year. Finding out I could take a class with them was amazing. It was a call out to me specifically since I had spent so much time during the past summer watching YouTube videos of students’ reactions after getting into Stanford.
I want to be the first in my family to finish college, but honestly, I’m afraid of not knowing what to do and who I can fall back on for help when I start. I worry that I’m going to be playing catch up with classmates whose parents, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters are doctors. I want to be an anesthesiologist or a cardiologist and be able to provide for my kids. I want my mom to be able to be an old lady, just be at home and not have to worry about where her next meal is coming from. College is the way I can make it.
Still, I considered not taking this course. I was afraid that it would be too overwhelming for me. I have a schedule packed with rigorous courses. I am taking eight classes – CS 105, a community college class, three AP classes, one honors class, one regular class, and an ASB (Associated Student Body) leadership class. On top of this, I have a lot of extra-curricular activities. Some weekends, I didn’t get a chance to do any of my homework until Sunday morning because I was at a wrestling tournament on Friday and Saturday or I had events to prepare for ASB. I knew it would be a challenge to maintain the 4.0 GPA I earned in 9th and 10th grade, but I knew I had to take this opportunity.
Early on in CS 105, I was reminded that it was a college class, and I could drop it if I wanted to. After getting the first assignment, I remembered that. I made mistakes and spent a lot of time identifying and fixing them. Elina, the teaching fellow, told us that our code is not always going to be perfect and that we will make mistakes. Throughout the semester, instead of criticizing a mistake or an uncertainty, she embraced them, so I decided that I wanted to stay in the class. While I did overwhelm myself this fall semester by taking so many rigorous classes, I still passed all of them. Although I don’t have my 4.0 anymore, I worked my hardest and did the absolute best that I could have done. This course helped me to understand that I don’t need to be perfect. So I just want to learn now and just be comfortable with learning.
CS 105 humbled me but made me feel better about myself at the same time. The class helped me learn how college actually works because it moved really fast and required more independence, which at first made me panic. Before, I felt a lot of fear during assignments, a feeling in my stomach, it just made me nervous. The course took me out of my comfort zone. But I grew, so now my comfort zone is a lot bigger than my panic zone. The class made me more comfortable with the transition from high school to college. In CS 105, I did what I could, and I did pretty well. I took the same class as current Stanford students, and I passed the same class as them, at 16. I could handle it, so I think I’m going to do pretty well at college. After this class, for the first time, I feel like I can do it, like I have a good chance of getting in and succeeding at Stanford or another top-ranked school.
Ty Torres
Ty Torres (Image credit: Lindsay Humphrey, Birmingham Community Charter High School)
I love technology and have wanted to learn more about it for years. Ever since I was given a computer at the age of 7, I would be on it, whether it was looking up cool alligator facts or looking up how videogame physics would kill you in the real world. I was always looking up something no one knew about.
Before taking the course I didn’t know much about Stanford. All I knew was that it was a prestigious school. The chance to take a class at a famous university did play a big part in my decision to take CS 105 because I had only ever been able to do community college courses. This was a huge step forward as well as it being a class I was interested in generally. It was a double win.
The course has affected me a lot by challenging me in ways I’ve never thought of before. I’ve spent so many hours working on assignments that have excited me since the beginning. I would work on things forever, and it would take me 24 hours just to finish one project. I loved the technical aspect of it – the fact that we were basically talking to the computer using a new language.
My final project was a seven-page website going over all the characters from Super Smash Brothers Ultimate Fighters Pass 2. I created a page for each character with an analysis of each of their moves. The page also goes into greater detail about what the move was used for and when it worked best. When designing the website I put the navigation buttons on top because I prefer top navigation systems. I then chose to animate the navigation buttons to move up and down after getting the idea from my classmate Daisy Rafael. I then changed the backgrounds of all the pages to be color schemes of the character. I did this because normally webpages might be a solid color or very bland. Having color schemes for each character meant that it would be a treat for your eyes each time. For the home page, I made an overview of how the game works and what the next pages will contain. Lastly, I added a link to the main page in a scrolling title at the top to finish the entire project. I was extremely happy with how the website turned out.
Because of the experience of creating my own website and the other lessons in CS 105, I no longer see things from a singular perspective but through multiple perspectives when tackling a problem. For example, when I want to code something onto the screen, I have to think about which methods I could do to get what I am looking for. Now whenever I see anything technology based on the computer, I think of the person who went through the work of coding that complex website and what code they might have used. This class pulled back the curtain on how websites are made.
Ty Torres
Ty Torres (Image credit: Lindsay Humphrey, Birmingham Community Charter High School)
I love technology and have wanted to learn more about it for years. Ever since I was given a computer at the age of 7, I would be on it, whether it was looking up cool alligator facts or looking up how videogame physics would kill you in the real world. I was always looking up something no one knew about.
Before taking the course I didn’t know much about Stanford. All I knew was that it was a prestigious school. The chance to take a class at a famous university did play a big part in my decision to take CS 105 because I had only ever been able to do community college courses. This was a huge step forward as well as it being a class I was interested in generally. It was a double win.
The course has affected me a lot by challenging me in ways I’ve never thought of before. I’ve spent so many hours working on assignments that have excited me since the beginning. I would work on things forever, and it would take me 24 hours just to finish one project. I loved the technical aspect of it – the fact that we were basically talking to the computer using a new language.
My final project was a seven-page website going over all the characters from Super Smash Brothers Ultimate Fighters Pass 2. I created a page for each character with an analysis of each of their moves. The page also goes into greater detail about what the move was used for and when it worked best. When designing the website I put the navigation buttons on top because I prefer top navigation systems. I then chose to animate the navigation buttons to move up and down after getting the idea from my classmate Daisy Rafael. I then changed the backgrounds of all the pages to be color schemes of the character. I did this because normally webpages might be a solid color or very bland. Having color schemes for each character meant that it would be a treat for your eyes each time. For the home page, I made an overview of how the game works and what the next pages will contain. Lastly, I added a link to the main page in a scrolling title at the top to finish the entire project. I was extremely happy with how the website turned out.
Because of the experience of creating my own website and the other lessons in CS 105, I no longer see things from a singular perspective but through multiple perspectives when tackling a problem. For example, when I want to code something onto the screen, I have to think about which methods I could do to get what I am looking for. Now whenever I see anything technology based on the computer, I think of the person who went through the work of coding that complex website and what code they might have used. This class pulled back the curtain on how websites are made.
Janet Perez
Janet Perez (Image credit: Courtesy Janet Perez)
I enrolled in this Ed Equity course because I was curious. I had no prior experience or knowledge of computer science, and I thought it would be fun to step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself with a STEM course, since I usually reach for humanity-related topics. I was surprised by the workload and the short amount of time we had for assignments. It definitely gave me an insight as to what college work looked and felt like. However, the resources provided to guide me through the course helped to balance out the difficulty. Surprisingly, I found it to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be.
My school is pretty small. I have known all of my classmates since the sixth grade. However, this course created a stronger community with my classmates, since we were attempting to help each other succeed in a challenging course that not many of us had any prior experience in. We all could see our strengths and weaknesses from a different perspective. We would send messages to each other if we needed help after school or if we wanted to brainstorm solutions in class on how to write out a Python problem. I even made a study guide sheet and shared it with my whole class so that we were all on the same wavelength as to what topics we needed to know and how to approach certain questions that might be on the final. We all became closer and, compared to the beginning of the course, we’re not afraid to ask each other or our teaching fellow for help. We learned that working together and asking for help is what you have to do in college to succeed.
I am a first-generation Mexican American who is planning on attending college. I live with my mother and father, and I am the oldest child of three. My brother is 11 years old and my sister 9. A fun fact about me is that my brother was born one day after my birthday, 5 years after I was born. So my birthday is Jan. 26 and his is Jan. 27, meaning that he gets to choose flan as our birthday “cake” every year. My family means the world to me, and my mother and father are the gears behind my motivation to accomplish my career goal of becoming a criminal defense attorney and a politician. I have three cousins attending college in New York, as well as another who lives in Mexico and is a recently graduated nurse. Although I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, I would like to attend an out-of-state college.
Computer Science 105 has made me more confident when looking at what colleges I want to apply to, and even the majors or classes that I will consider taking in college. I know that I can handle and complete a course from a selective school. This experience has made me comfortable enough to look into competitive colleges like Georgetown University, University of California-Berkeley, Rice University and Stanford. It even has me considering computer science as my major in college, along with a variety of other majors. Now when I am researching some colleges, I am more attentive to the programs and degrees offered based on my interests. I figured out that I crave learning about new topics.
Janet Perez
Janet Perez (Image credit: Courtesy Janet Perez)
I enrolled in this Ed Equity course because I was curious. I had no prior experience or knowledge of computer science, and I thought it would be fun to step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself with a STEM course, since I usually reach for humanity-related topics. I was surprised by the workload and the short amount of time we had for assignments. It definitely gave me an insight as to what college work looked and felt like. However, the resources provided to guide me through the course helped to balance out the difficulty. Surprisingly, I found it to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be.
My school is pretty small. I have known all of my classmates since the sixth grade. However, this course created a stronger community with my classmates, since we were attempting to help each other succeed in a challenging course that not many of us had any prior experience in. We all could see our strengths and weaknesses from a different perspective. We would send messages to each other if we needed help after school or if we wanted to brainstorm solutions in class on how to write out a Python problem. I even made a study guide sheet and shared it with my whole class so that we were all on the same wavelength as to what topics we needed to know and how to approach certain questions that might be on the final. We all became closer and, compared to the beginning of the course, we’re not afraid to ask each other or our teaching fellow for help. We learned that working together and asking for help is what you have to do in college to succeed.
I am a first-generation Mexican American who is planning on attending college. I live with my mother and father, and I am the oldest child of three. My brother is 11 years old and my sister 9. A fun fact about me is that my brother was born one day after my birthday, 5 years after I was born. So my birthday is Jan. 26 and his is Jan. 27, meaning that he gets to choose flan as our birthday “cake” every year. My family means the world to me, and my mother and father are the gears behind my motivation to accomplish my career goal of becoming a criminal defense attorney and a politician. I have three cousins attending college in New York, as well as another who lives in Mexico and is a recently graduated nurse. Although I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, I would like to attend an out-of-state college.
Computer Science 105 has made me more confident when looking at what colleges I want to apply to, and even the majors or classes that I will consider taking in college. I know that I can handle and complete a course from a selective school. This experience has made me comfortable enough to look into competitive colleges like Georgetown University, University of California-Berkeley, Rice University and Stanford. It even has me considering computer science as my major in college, along with a variety of other majors. Now when I am researching some colleges, I am more attentive to the programs and degrees offered based on my interests. I figured out that I crave learning about new topics.
Macy Ruiz
Macy Ruiz (Image credit: Lindsay Humphrey, Birmingham Community Charter High School)
I’ve had many opportunities to take college classes at Los Angeles Valley College since I entered high school. Recently I’ve noticed that, whenever I fill out a form to sign up for my college classes, I always see one specific question, “Do you identify as Hispanic, Latino or of Spanish origin?” I began to wonder why they asked this specific question. Why does it matter if I am of Hispanic origin? After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that it in fact does matter that I’m Hispanic. It’s primarily for statistics, which government agencies collect and share, but colleges also use it to make policies about campus diversity or simply to understand a person’s educational background. As a Latina, I feel pride to be able to achieve such high educational goals that my family wasn’t privileged to have. By taking college classes and high school at the same time, I am showing myself I can succeed.
The thought of being able to participate in a Stanford college class frightened me. Stanford is well known for being one of the greatest universities and one of the hardest colleges to get into. I wondered if I was good enough to be in a Stanford class. I wondered if I could handle it. At first, I thought CS 105 was going to be taking apart computers, and I was surprised when I learned that oh, we’re going to learn to code. It helped knowing that I had a bunch of classmates with me who felt the same way. When I got my first assignment it was really difficult for me to understand. But over time I realized that I’m not going to know everything and I’m going to learn if I just try. I began to have fun. Seeing my high scores on assignments in my Stanford class helps boost my confidence.
One thing I liked about this class was that I was able to learn how to create websites through code. But it was also the main thing I struggled with. I would get frustrated when my code wasn’t working even though I checked it several times. I would be feeling overwhelmed that I might not complete my assignments on time. The next day, when I was more relaxed, I realized I had made a grammar error. Coding is a very precise task, and one mistake can cause quite some stress. However, the feeling I had when I finished my final website was the best feeling of relief and excitement.
At the beginning of the course, I received a question as to how I think I can use computer science in the real world and my response was improving my math skills. One of the main subjects I’ve struggled with is math as I didn’t understand the importance of why it’s used. After taking this course, my grade in math increased by 10 percent because the once lifeless subject has become more relevant to my world – and enjoyable!
After I graduate high school, I imagine myself going to college to study to be a pathologist or veterinarian. Although CS 105 is not a career I would like to pursue, being able to take in new knowledge and skills opens pathways for job opportunities. As a Latina in society, there are barriers to receiving higher-paying jobs and higher credibility. By challenging myself in CS 105, I showed that, even in an unfair world, I can achieve greater goals to be something.
Macy Ruiz
Macy Ruiz (Image credit: Lindsay Humphrey, Birmingham Community Charter High School)
I’ve had many opportunities to take college classes at Los Angeles Valley College since I entered high school. Recently I’ve noticed that, whenever I fill out a form to sign up for my college classes, I always see one specific question, “Do you identify as Hispanic, Latino or of Spanish origin?” I began to wonder why they asked this specific question. Why does it matter if I am of Hispanic origin? After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that it in fact does matter that I’m Hispanic. It’s primarily for statistics, which government agencies collect and share, but colleges also use it to make policies about campus diversity or simply to understand a person’s educational background. As a Latina, I feel pride to be able to achieve such high educational goals that my family wasn’t privileged to have. By taking college classes and high school at the same time, I am showing myself I can succeed.
The thought of being able to participate in a Stanford college class frightened me. Stanford is well known for being one of the greatest universities and one of the hardest colleges to get into. I wondered if I was good enough to be in a Stanford class. I wondered if I could handle it. At first, I thought CS 105 was going to be taking apart computers, and I was surprised when I learned that oh, we’re going to learn to code. It helped knowing that I had a bunch of classmates with me who felt the same way. When I got my first assignment it was really difficult for me to understand. But over time I realized that I’m not going to know everything and I’m going to learn if I just try. I began to have fun. Seeing my high scores on assignments in my Stanford class helps boost my confidence.
One thing I liked about this class was that I was able to learn how to create websites through code. But it was also the main thing I struggled with. I would get frustrated when my code wasn’t working even though I checked it several times. I would be feeling overwhelmed that I might not complete my assignments on time. The next day, when I was more relaxed, I realized I had made a grammar error. Coding is a very precise task, and one mistake can cause quite some stress. However, the feeling I had when I finished my final website was the best feeling of relief and excitement.
At the beginning of the course, I received a question as to how I think I can use computer science in the real world and my response was improving my math skills. One of the main subjects I’ve struggled with is math as I didn’t understand the importance of why it’s used. After taking this course, my grade in math increased by 10 percent because the once lifeless subject has become more relevant to my world – and enjoyable!
After I graduate high school, I imagine myself going to college to study to be a pathologist or veterinarian. Although CS 105 is not a career I would like to pursue, being able to take in new knowledge and skills opens pathways for job opportunities. As a Latina in society, there are barriers to receiving higher-paying jobs and higher credibility. By challenging myself in CS 105, I showed that, even in an unfair world, I can achieve greater goals to be something.
Justin Eugene Natividad
Justin Eugene Natividad (Image credit: Rodgie Mark T. Bucsit)
I was born in the Philippines and moved to Hawai’i when I was 10. My parents wanted my sister and me to get a better education. When I entered high school, many of my teachers encouraged me and other students to join “Early College” [a program in which students take community college classes while in high school]. It was a win-win situation for me because I could take college classes without having to pay. During high school, I really wanted to excel because I promised myself that I would do better than I did in middle school. So I started paying attention and participating more in class, which paid off. By the end of high school, I hope to end with honors and make my parents proud.
What led me to take CS 105 was my interest in computer science. Since the start of high school, I was really interested in watching videos concerning technology and video games because I wanted to understand their lingo and be part of that community. I have watched so many videos about computers that I knew the parts and believed that I could build one. Unfortunately, I could not afford to build a computer at the time so I did the best thing available to me. I took the Information Tech pathway in school.
In my sophomore year, I took Coding 1 and learned the basics of coding. In my junior year in Coding 2, I participated in a hackathon and created an app. By my senior year when I was asked to join the Stanford class being offered by National Education Equity Lab, I said yes. I thought CS 105 would encourage me to become more passionate about computer science.
I feel great about completing this course because it was a college-level course from Stanford, which is a prestigious place to study computer science. I finished a class that Stanford students are taking! That makes me feel really prepared for college. I have applied to the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, and I am planning to apply to the University of Texas at El Paso, which my sister is attending. I now also think about going to Stanford or another university with a big computer science program.
Justin Eugene Natividad
Justin Eugene Natividad (Image credit: Rodgie Mark T. Bucsit)
I was born in the Philippines and moved to Hawai’i when I was 10. My parents wanted my sister and me to get a better education. When I entered high school, many of my teachers encouraged me and other students to join “Early College” [a program in which students take community college classes while in high school]. It was a win-win situation for me because I could take college classes without having to pay. During high school, I really wanted to excel because I promised myself that I would do better than I did in middle school. So I started paying attention and participating more in class, which paid off. By the end of high school, I hope to end with honors and make my parents proud.
What led me to take CS 105 was my interest in computer science. Since the start of high school, I was really interested in watching videos concerning technology and video games because I wanted to understand their lingo and be part of that community. I have watched so many videos about computers that I knew the parts and believed that I could build one. Unfortunately, I could not afford to build a computer at the time so I did the best thing available to me. I took the Information Tech pathway in school.
In my sophomore year, I took Coding 1 and learned the basics of coding. In my junior year in Coding 2, I participated in a hackathon and created an app. By my senior year when I was asked to join the Stanford class being offered by National Education Equity Lab, I said yes. I thought CS 105 would encourage me to become more passionate about computer science.
I feel great about completing this course because it was a college-level course from Stanford, which is a prestigious place to study computer science. I finished a class that Stanford students are taking! That makes me feel really prepared for college. I have applied to the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, and I am planning to apply to the University of Texas at El Paso, which my sister is attending. I now also think about going to Stanford or another university with a big computer science program.