Moms to the Rescue by Samantha

Moms to the Rescue by Samantha - October 2016 Scholarship Essay

Recently a friend of mine at school became pregnant. Teen pregnancy was always something I had heard about, but had never actually witnessed, nor did I think it would happen to someone I knew. She was scared, and I was scared for her as well. She kept saying that she didn’t know what to do or how to be a mother. I realized that I didn’t know much about being a mom either. We weren’t really supposed to. Seeing her look so confused scared me because I knew she would be a mother very soon. Around the same time, I found out I was starting a computer science program called Girls Who Code (GWC). This program focused on both computer science ands social issues. The aim was for everyone to learn how to use computer science to solve these issues. Because of my friend, the first problem I thought of was teen pregnancy, and how hard it is for young women to prepare for such a responsibility.
While brainstorming a computer science project, another girl thought of making an app for young mothers to connect and support each other. I thought this was a great idea, but decided I wanted to create something that also educated young mothers on the essentials of motherhood, rather than just providing them with a support group. For my final project, I decided to create a game for young mothers that would educate them on motherhood. Two other girls chose the same topic, and we created a game on Python called “Mom to the Rescue.” The game focused around a young mother trying to keep her baby safe and healthy, in addition to providing tips and “hacks” about motherhood..The object of the game was to avoid germs and honey (since honey is bad for newborns), and to collect diapers, pacifiers, and envelopes which contain the motherhood tips. At the end of the game, depending on the number of envelopes you collect, a good or bad tip will appear. We tried to make this game simple, in order for us to get our point across.. There should be a way to educate young mothers that doesn't necessarily involve going to a parenting class or reading a book about moms. We wanted to create a fun and relatable way for young women to learn about motherhood, and that’s what we did.
Once the game was finished I showed it to my friend. She was so moved that I had dedicated a few weeks of my summer to this game that was inspired by her. She said that the tips were very interesting and that she would definitely play during her free time. I was so glad to hear that, and realized then that I couldn’t have picked a better project. This project is so significant to me because I was struggling the whole summer with Girls Who Code. Although some coding languages weren’t too difficult, it was hard for me to get used to them, and to do all the projects they instructed us to do. I felt like everyone was understanding the concepts except for me. As much as I tried to plow through the problems, I realized that I had to break it down. I normally like to think that I don’t have to work that hard to understand something, so when there’s a real challenge I just assume I’ll eventually get it. In coding, it’s not that simple. You must understand every concept to produce a program, and I knew very little about the program I was using. I was forced to break it down. There were many moments during this project when I didn’t want to finish the game, and was going to settle for few functions. As many times as I wanted to give up, I knew that I needed to suck it up, and finish the game. The message I was trying to send was too important to neglect.