This is Mara

My name is Mara and I am 14 years old. I started learning computer science with Kiki Prottsman of Thinkersmith in September of 2011, and I think it’s amazing! I met her through GOSG (Girls’ Open-Source Group), where we are currently making a parent protected email for kids called Kangaroomail. In the beginning, I was slightly confused about what we were doing, but by the end of my first class, I thought it was great. Kiki is an amazing teacher, and she knows just how to encourage girls.

Within Kangaroomail, I am learning the basics of CSS, php, and html. We have so far created a login page and a basic email viewing page, though each one is still a work in progress. Kiki helped inspire me to use logical thinking and reason to solve problems within the website.

That group led to another class on computer programming, also taught by Kiki. She invited me to join, and it has been wonderful. We started with some logical thinking skills, then worked with Python, a programming language. We just moved from Python to Javascript, which is used with website design. I have learned a lot through both classes.

Through my journey so far within computer programming, I feel I have improved my logical thinking skills a lot. I have learned how to “think like a computer” to translate ideas into code, and the different languages used with each program. I find it amazing to be able to program different things, and I have used this knowledge to edit my own blog. I hope to create a new post soon as I continue to journey through computer science.