By Madia Mohammad Mousa
Google has launched a new initiative called igniteCS, which supports groups of college students who want to make a difference in their communities through computer science mentoring. With the help of our advisor Marissa Schmidt, I, Madia Mohammad Mousa and my peers Jiahang Li, Marc Garland, Aza Tulepbergenov, and Cole Jelinek took advantage of this opportunity and applied for it. Fortunately, our proposal got approved and we’ll be receiving funding and mentorship from Google to ignite interest about Computer Science in students.
Our program will be built around high school students (9th – 12th grade). Our goal is to host mentoring events once a month starting in March until the beginning of summer. We plan to hold events during school or on the weekends. In addition to this, we plan to collaborate with Computer Science faculty to co-host a few events in the summer. We are very excited about this opportunity and are looking forward to making it a success.
During the events, we will organize team projects for high school students. The winning teams will have a chance to receive many great prizes, such as Chromebooks, gift cards and Google swag.
The igniteCS mentors will receive mentorship from Google, as well as Google swag and will be able to build up their leadership skills. Â Being part of igniteCS will also be a great activity to feature on resumes.
If you would like to join the initiative and become a mentor, please send an email to madiamohammadmousa@u.boisestate.edu . We welcome any students who are interested and are ready to join on this amazing quest/journey with us.
