Hello World by Ricardo

Hello World by Ricardo - August 2015 Scholarship Essay

Hello World

“Hello World”. This two word, proverbial string of letters is known well to computer programmers throughout the globe. Elon Musk, Sergei Brin, Larry Page, and Mark Zuckerberg all began their paths to success by getting their computer to print out these simple words. Yet students throughout America will never get the opportunity to greet the world as these inspirational people once did. With computer programming, students can better prepare themselves professionally and academically for the future while finding an outlet for the stress and hardship faced throughout their high school career. In a world where social media reigns king, where Americans adopt their technology as part of their psyche, and where the highest paying and most fulfilling jobs center around coding, it would be foolhardy for the American high school system not to accept computer programming in its curriculum.

Computer Programming is the perfect blend of science and art. As programmers work for places like Disney Imagineering and Pixar as well as NASA and Boeing. Programmers, additionally are highly valued by their employers and are treated as such, as many jobs include high salaries, free gourmet food, free rides to work, pet friendly offices, free massages, state of the art gyms with free memberships, and amazing benefits. This is because the skills developed from coding can be applied to a wide variety of jobs across all major industries, making programmers a valuable asset to any company. In fact according to code.org an estimated 1.4 million computing jobs will be made available by 2020, while only 400,000 computer science majors will be able fill the market. Yet despite this of the total enrollment of high school students in AP courses only .7% took AP Computer Science, and of the total number of college graduates less than 2.4% of students graduate with a computer science degree. In a labor market that features high levels of unemployment, it would be an astronomical benefit for students to gain the skills necessary to be attractive candidates for employment.

In addition, computer programming can serve as a viable means of funding a college education. With no certification required to develop and publish an app or website, high school students can enter the app or ecommerce market and start generating money at any age they desire. This is not true for part time jobs or internships where age restrictions, youth biases, and lack of credentials often prevent students from working while in high school. Furthermore, students can learn how to code for free through sources such as Codeacademy, code.org, Harvard and MIT’s free online coursework, and thousands of YouTube videos. This makes the curriculum costs virtually zero and eases the lesson planning process for public and private schools as teachers can find entire books, sample problems, tests, and video tutorials for free online.

Computer programming also provides an inexpensive platform for high school students to showcase their skills and knowledge for college admission committees. SAT/ACT testing, GPA and extracurricular activities currently stand as the primary metrics used by admission counselors throughout the admission process. Yet these metrics overwhelmingly favor wealthier communities, as students with parents of higher income can afford to pay for private tutors and the cost of participating in sports, music, and the arts. As a result, students in impoverished communities stand to gain great dividends from learning how to program due to low costs of investment required by school districts. The initial investment to implement a computer programming curriculum can prove to be minimal as the computers required to code need not be high quality computers. In fact, computers that are 8 and sometimes even 10 years old can be used to create quality useful programs, and often computers that are already owned by schools need only a free compiler downloaded to begin coding. With such a low barrier of entry students can create and publish software projects, websites, or apps to beef up their college applications.

When a programmer codes they bring their chisel to their block of code and expertly carve out a program out of the thin air. They slowly mold their program to be more efficient, more user friendly, and more innovative. This artistic process has proven to be not only therapeutic, but life changing as well, as some prisons throughout the country have elected to teach coding as a rehabilitative process. The same mindset can be applied to schools with a high level of at risk youth, as computer programming can prove to be a catalyst of academic achievement. As mentioned before, computer programming has a low barrier of entry requiring only a computer and internet. In addition computer programming at its heart is all about solving problems. To accomplish this students need to think critically, logically, creatively, mathematically, and concisely. This method of thinking is crucial to the academic success of students as logic, creativity, conciseness, and quantitative reasoning provides a deeper level of understanding in STEM-based subjects and allows for more developed discussions and abstractions in the social sciences and arts.

In an increasingly technological age we are doing our students a great disservice by not including computer programming into the high school curriculum. Students are offered a great deal of benefits both academically and economically by learning how to code. With computer programming we can finally let students tell the world hello.