The Programming Club Prepares Students for a Technology Reliant Society

The+Programming+Club+Prepares+Students+for+a+Technology+Reliant+Society

Dennis Sarniske, Staff Writer

As the school-year begins, students have the opportunity to join a variety of new student-organized clubs. With our growing reliance on technology, computer science skills have never been more relevant. Despite this, there is an obvious lack of text-based coding extracurriculars at CCHS. The programming club, created by sophomore Spencer Pogorzelski and Spike O’Carroll, offers valuable guidance in this emerging field.

No prior experience is required as “the club accommodates all skill levels, all you need is the motivation to learn,” Pogorzelski said. He adds that the goal is to create a “friendly, educational environment.” 

“Every week we create a project, our focus is developing self-sufficient learners, we don’t practice memorizing and regurgitating lines of code from a whiteboard or notebook,” Pogorzelski said. The club’s goal is to teach and understand programming, not how to remember a few strings of text. “We want to explain why it works, the logic behind the code, not just what you need to type to make the program work.”

Club members gain free access to Pogorzelski and O’Carroll’s knowledge, as well the assistance of other members. “You get to be in an environment to learn with others. Chances are, if you don’t know the answer to something, someone else can help you. You’re free to move at your own pace, we respect everyone’s learning process,” Pogorzelski said. 

Members use an online IDE—integrated development environment—to edit and run their code from anywhere, even outside school. “There isn’t really a single trend in our projects… you’re free to work on whatever you want. Last week, we made a number guessing game with python where the player would guess the computer’s number and it would output whether the number was too high, too low, or right on. We hope to build up to more advanced projects as our members learn,” Pogorzelski said. 

The club seeks to combine everyone’s knowledge and passion to cultivate collaboration and comprehension of computer-science. Learning to program may seem insurmountable by yourself, but through cooperation you’ll never have a question gone unanswered. Whether you’re a complete beginner, someone who has never even tried to code, or an experienced developer with considerable mastery, the club will always be open to you.