I have had a great first year at Shodor, and I have learned a lot! I initially found out about the Shodor Foundation through their summer camps. I attended the Engineers in Training, Math Explorations, and Environmental Science camps. I found out about the Apprenticeship program there, where high schoolers are taught programming and modeling skills and they get paid for doing it. To me, being able to learn useful programming skills and have the opportunity to use those skills is something that people pay for, and that the Apprenticeship program actually pays us for learning is just over the top! Even though I was just an eighth grader, I applied for the program. I was tickled to soon receive a letter in the mail informing me that I had been accepted into the Apprenticeship program!
I have had a truly awesome experience with Shodor! Not only have we learned skills for website development (html, css, php), modeling (NetLogo, Agentsheets, Vensim, Excel), and various other computer-based skills (php, Java, System Administration), but we have also gained skills that apply to our day-to-day life. We've developed our presentation skills, learned how to work in groups, polished our writing skills, and experienced working in a professional environment. It was really cool to find on Craigslist jobs that we could do using just the skills we've learned at Shodor! Wow!
In addition to all of these awesome things that Shodor has taught me, one of the coolest things about Shodor is the atmosphere here. It is so unique to find a place where you can meet people of my age and different ages who are all interested in the same things as you are. Not only have I learned from the teachers at Shodor, I've learned from the other kids. I've met lots of people I never would have otherwise, and now some of my best friends are at Shodor. Although Shodor does have a very professional atmosphere, it is also very much a family. It's a very rare thing to find a group of people that is as nice, smart, and fun to be around as the people at Shodor, and I am continually amazed by what an awesome place it is. I have had a wonderful experience at Shodor, and I feel that the people at Shodor and my experiences here have had a profound impact on my life.