Student Testimonial: World Scholars Academy

Zeynep Çelikten - World Scholars Academy

Why Did You Choose To Participate in This Summer Program?

Growing up, we didn’t have anyone in the family that understood electronics and as the eldest child I was the one to solve the computer related problems in the house, which ultimately led me to know my way around computers. However, I had a lot of questions about the logic of computer science and how everything worked together. I wanted to participate in this summer program, for I knew I wanted a strong foundation and understanding of basic concepts.

How Did You Decide Which Summer Program Was Right For You?

I researched a lot of pre-college introductory computer science programs, however most of them did not offer the collaborative and interactive environment WSA Coders Academy program offered. As a person who tried to learn programming via pre-recorded lectures for six months and almost gave up hope of ever learning programming, this was a huge plus for me. The course was given by an amazing instructor with experience in the field, which was a factor I looked for as I had many questions to ask. Lastly, the WSA Coders Academy course material included introductory yet extensive content which was certain to set a strong foundation for my computer science journey.

What Was a Typical Day Like in Your Summer Program?

A typical day would begin with solving the unsolved questions of yesterday’s homework with our instructor. We were encouraged to brainstorm together as a group and come up with a solution and he would only step in if we were totally lost. The lesson would move on with the instructor’s presentations that were very interactive and supported by real-life examples, we sometimes played fun games to understand certain concepts. Whenever we didn’t understand a part from the presentations we would go to our Phyton IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and try for ourselves how a certain code would work.

Then we were assigned take-home exercises that helped us practice what we learned that day because after all programming is mostly about practice. I had somewhat of a guess what I would learn in a two-week program but this was beyond my expectations. I learned so much in two weeks that even I was surprised.

What Was the Most Memorable Moment of Your Summer Program?

My most memorable moment of the program has to be when I first wrote a complex code without the help of my instructor. One of the exercises of our daily assignment was writing a Phyton code to check the validity of a password. It was a challenging code to write as the code needed to check for many factors like symbols, digits, number of characters, etc. However, I was able to write a fully functioning code after a lot of trial and error. It was a very important moment for me as it was the first time I’ve written a code that was used in real life as we often come across such code at every website when creating passwords. It was a moment which made me sure of my decision of studying computer science and eventually pursuing it as a career.

What Advice Do You Have For Teens Looking for Summer Programs?

When looking for a summer program, make sure to check the program’s curriculum, whether it meets your wants and standards, the instructor, as the instructor is a very important factor in understanding complex concepts, and its environment, an interactive environment was a must for me, and I chose accordingly. If the program meets all of your personal requirements. then go, enjoy, and learn something new!