In my earlier years, even though I knew I was a computer person, I, at first, didn't enjoy programming. In 5th grade, I had done the hour of code at my school. We worked on moving a cat around the screen to get him through the maze. We did so using block coding and every level up they made the maze bigger or added obstacles. It felt easy, boring, and repetitive since we were stuck using the same four commands to complete the levels. I didn't touch programming again until 10th grade when my teacher required us to complete the new hour of code. This time when I went on it was far different and actually very enjoyable. I specifically remember having fun programming Minecraft Steve to build things. I then decided to participate in the coding contest at my school and when I won I realized I was decent at programming. It was also a lot more entertaining and less limited than I thought it had been. Eventually, I decided to expand my knowledge by participating in programming related contests, programs, field trips, classes, and events. Through them, I was successfully able to learn and experience Python, SQL, and C. Eventually, I came upon this opportunity at Shodor. It is through this program that I am happily able to add Javascript to that list while learning other important concepts!
Prior to joining Shodor, I was looking for a computer science internship. My friends had helped me find a few online internships but I wasn't so sure about them and eventually never ended up joining them. To my surprise, a little later on I received an email talking about Shodor, a computational science apprenticeship, from the engineering coordinator at my school. I was sold when I looked at the learning curriculum. It had things I eventually wanted to self-study or things I haven't tried before. I learned that Shodor was more of a scientific computing internship rather than a broad computer science internship. And that everything learned would be for the purpose of modeling or computing something. Knowing my willingness to try and end up enjoying different computer-related things I kept Shodor in my mind after signing up + being interviewed, and luckily, I got selected!