Redemption - Sergio Ruiz by Sergio

Redemption - Sergio Ruiz by Sergio - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

When I was still in middle school nearing the end of my school year we were given forms to choose our classes for the upcoming freshman year. One of those classes that I chose was a class called C++ a programming class. When I read the description of the class it described the class a fun experience to learn how to program video games. Me being a fan of video games decided to join in along with my friend. As my middle school year ended and started my freshman year, I was excited and nervous but mostly excited for C++ which was in the 8th-hour class. The day went by and when we got to the class I took a seat right next to my friend. However right away the teacher handed us our first assignment which was to make a window to pop-up. Our only resource being a website where we were supposed to memorize the code and learn it. I couldn’t remember much to anything of the code, even after getting help from the aides and a bit from the teacher I could not memorize anything at all.

After two weeks of trying to learn even a single bit, I ended failing quiz after quiz and my grade dropped to an F. To prevent from losing any credit in the class I ended up auditing the class. For the remainder of the semester, I spent it either doing homework from other classes or surfing the web. When the semester ended I thought to myself that I should never take another coding class. I went through with that pledge and go through my sophomore year without any coding class. Eventually by the end of my sophomore year, as I flipping through the pages of my packet to see what electives would be fun or worth doing for next year, I found a class for web design. I was hesitant at first but I gave myself a vow. If I can pass the web design class then I should be able to learn other programming languages. After picking my classes I asked my friend for any advice so I can be more prepared for the web design class.

My friend suggested me to go to a website called Codecademy which taught free online courses of programming language. I took some courses of HTML and CSS and while I didn’t fully finish the courses, I did, however, learn the basics of web design. When my junior year rolled in, my web design class was in the 7th-hour class and it was also my last class. Which is a bit of ironic since C++ was my last class for the day. However I was prepared this time, and thanks to my friend’s advice I passed every lesson and memorized most of the code. Understood the basics of HTML and CSS, a bit of Javascript, and learned how to use photoshop effectively for websites. I usually got my work done early than others that sometimes the teacher would ask me to aid other students.

When the first semester ended I passed the class with an A. I decided afterward that I would spend two to four nights a week on Codecademy to continue further studying web design courses. I accomplished my objective from the beginning of the year which was to aim for an A in the class. And continued my vow to learn other programming languages. To this day I'm still learning about HTML & CSS coding along with a bit of Javascript. Possibly I plan to become a web designer but till then I’ll keep learning the languages needed.