Bria’s Favorite Moments in CS

Hello Mr. Mortenson! I just wanna start off this post by thanking you for being open to writing me a letter of recommendation. Computer science was a class that I wasn’t sure about taking during high school, but my dad encouraged me to take it early on to try and get ahead. Being in your class has taught me everything I know about computer science and I’m super grateful that I got the opportunity to be in this class. I’ve met so many super cool comp sci nerds and have learned so many programming, communicative, and soft skills that I know will be valuable in my life. With that being said here are my top 5 favorite moments from computer science:

1. Coding my create task: The create task was super intimidating and I was not sure how to initially approach it. I was excited to get started, but unsure about my ideas and how to plan out my ideas. However, you laid out each step really nicely and it helped me understand what was expected for me to code. The create task was my first experience coding something start to finish completely on my own, and I really liked being in control of the whole process from ideation to testing and refining the final product.
2. Planning the alumni panel: I really enjoyed when we planned the alumni panel together because I got to see my favorite alumni and practice some management and leadership skills. I loved making the posters for the event and publicizing to everyone in CS. I also loved getting to hear from everyone and the insight that they got from your class as well. I really liked getting to work with you and reaching out to each of the panelists. I hope that I can help plan more events like these throughout the year.
3. Images lab from last year: This was my first time really working with arrays and images, and I love working through the code and figuring out how to grayscale the images on my own. Though what I loved most about this project was how much failure we had to work through with my computer. I don’t remember what the specific error was, but for some reason, despite the code being exactly the same as yours, my images would not show up on my website. I remember being super frustrated, and spending a bunch of class periods double checking my code versus yours to see what I was doing wrong. Throughout the whole process, you were super helpful and figured out the issue was with the windows directories not finding the images properly. This was one of my favorite moments because it definitely made me feel more comfortable asking questions in the classroom and asking you more questions. It also taught me to be more patient with myself and with the code.
4. Nail bot presentation and SD Stem Startups: I loved this SD Stem Startups event, and how much technical insight that the speaker had for us, but my favorite part was when you got your nail painted by the robot! I think the events that you held throughout the year really helped me realize how many pathways that computer science and programming can apply to. I think its also helped me realize that I don’t only have to do computer science to still be in the same technical field.
5. Working on code over the summer and getting a 5 on my AP Exam: Getting the opportunity to work with you on some code and getting to know the programs over the summer was one of my favorite moments as well. I hard time to genuinely just dive into code and figure out how to work the new tools that we are using this year, which was nice. The summer was also cool because I realized I got a 5 on the exam. Funnily enough, I hadn’t even checked my scores, but I saw your slack message first which made me realize scores were out. I really loved CSP and learned so much about code that getting a 5 gave me that extra validation that I needed to know that I was on the right track.
6. The final thing that I love about CS is just the conversations that we have. I love how much insight and personal advice that you’ve given me this past year, and I feel like I’ve gotten a look into the technical future that I hope to pursue. I’m looking forward to more technical conversations this year as I learn more. Thanks for being the best teacher ever :)

5 bulleted items on qualities as a student

  • Determined: I’ve never coded before this class. There are a lot of things I still don’t know about code, however I am determined and try to work to get better at coding and at problem solving on my own.
  • Creative: Outside of comp sci, I’m involved in Yearbook and Theater, and I love being a part of them because I can express my creativity through design work.
  • Social: I really enjoying working as a team, and getting to talk and get to know people. I love learning about other people’s stories.
  • Adventurous: I love trying new things and extra curriculars. I think it’s a really good way for me to figure out what I enjoy to do and what I want to pursue in my future. I also just like having new experiences.
  • Curious: I think I’m very curious when it comes to learning new skills.

5 bulleted items on technical accomplishments

  • The first technical accomplishment that I am proud of is the database work that I did last year in for my trimester 2 website in CSP. It was one of the first times I geniunely understood everything that was happening in the code and I changed the code to personalize it to our website’s topic which was a new student support website.
  • The second technical accomplishment that I am proud of is my create task because I coded it from start to finish, and it implemented a lot of topics that I was having trouble on at the beginning of the year. It was also a good chance for me to see the connection between frontend and backend.
  • The third technical accomplishment that I am proud of is the website that my group made for the lacrosse team. Even though the website is not complete, I was super proud of the frontend presentation, and I think that it was really cool to work to create an actual product for our sponsor.
  • The fourth technical accomplishment that I am proud of is the first website that my scrum group and I worked on during trimester one of CSP. I was proud of this website because even though it was basically all frontend, I think it taught me a lot about JavaScript and its connection to HTML which I had not known about before. The website was also about music, which everyone in my group really enjoyed, so it was a ncie introduction into CSP.
  • The fifth technical accomplishment that I am proud of is from this year actually and was the deploument of our website. I didn’t deploy last year because I didn’t understand how to do it, but this year I’ve learned more about the deployment process and how to deploy our team website.