We Connect The Dots hosts a Back To School HACK-A-THON every year and invites schools to become host-sites to introduce STEAM-related academic and career opportunities to students.
In our last blog post, I explained that I interviewed Jennifer Hoff, one of our site’s lead representatives for our annual HACK-A-THON. We discussed the overall program, its impact on our students and communities, and our upcoming January 2020 HACK-A THON
Jennifer Hoff is the founder of Hoff Communications, an advertising and marketing firm with a business-to-business focus on the printing and publishing industries. She is also a School Board member for the William Penn School Board district in Darby, Pennsylvania. Jennifer signed up William Penn School District as a host-site for the CODE-A THON and has been with us since we began the program 5 years ago. Below is part 2 of our interview with Jennifer.
Our full podcast with Jennifer is available HERE on YouTube.
Impact of CODE-A-THON:
Students aren’t expected to know how to code. We see a lot of new students, and they tend to come back every year, even after being accepted to college.
“As we enter our fifth year hosting the program,” Jennifer said, “we now have students who previously participated in the Hack-A-Thon, in computer science degree programs in college. We have students that started with us 4 years ago that are now in college for STEM careers. They followed the path.” These students also come back to be mentors and share their experiences with the students participating in the program. “We see that, over time, students are giving back through training, teaching and being a part of this program.”
“The unexpected, awesome thing is that our school district saw the value and added AP computer science and a robotic elective to our curriculum. We didn’t have any of that stuff five years ago!” Jennifer exclaimed. The school also participates in NASA’s Space Apps challenge.” She further explained that the CODE-A-THON is not the only computer science program hosted by the school district; William Penn now has several other programs that are now possible because of their initial involvement in the We-Connect-the-Dots CODE-A-THON “The CODE-A-THON was a launching pad for our district for students to do bigger and better things,” Jennifer said.
The William Penn School District is excited for the COD-A-THON. “We were the first to participate in the program and we’re almost never the first in anything due to financial issues,” Jennifer explained.” This doesn’t cost us much and it leads to value for, and pride from, our community.”
Volunteer Involvement:
Industry resources and their engagement with the students throughout the weekend is also an integral part of the program. “Students need different ways to look at things,” Jennifer stated. We have adults who work in the industry volunteer, which gives students access to people that they wouldn’t ordinarily meet.
Students learn how to network and ask questions that they normally wouldn’t ask because they’d be intimated to approach professionals like these volunteers.
Initial hesitations from Community Members of William Penn School District:
Our CODE-A-THON requires students to sleep over at the host site so they can attain the full benefits of a 2-and-a-half-day immersive experience. Jennifer said, “The sleepover is unexpected but we feel that it is the most important part of the process. Once the adult/guardian sees the value for the child, the fear goes away.” Students get the opportunity to eat together, spend quality time with each other, hear different speakers, play Kahoot together, and much more. “We become a little society for 48 hours. It’s fascinating to see how well students from all different walks of life do.”
If WCTD didn’t require a sleepover for the program, students would lose momentum in the potential of the program. If the can leave in less time, they won’t challenge and push themselves. Some would go home and not return, which impacts other students. Furthermore, the bonds that are created on the first night would be lost. “The bond keeps moving and builds throughout the entire weekend. By the end, they create relationships,” Jennifer said.
Some parents have hesitations about the sleepover for fear that some students might be disruptive. However, Jennifer continued, “I’ve not had any issues in five years. I don’t expect any issues. Students who sign up for a 48-hour immersion are not the ones who are going to cause a problem for themselves or anyone else, because they’ve committed to something bigger than anything they’ve done in the past.” Furthermore, the students are always under adult supervision.
Our Expectations:
“There’s a night and day difference in the students,” Jennifer said. “I’m not a teacher. My job is to facilitate making the students great. There’s a whole different set of rules and expectations. How much you get out of the program is up to you.” Students in the program have demonstrated no, to very little, bias. Even if there is, however, students tend to act differently from being in the typical school environment because of how immersive the program is and how engaged the students become. Our only expectation for them is to be open-minded to learn.
We also mix 13- to 18-year-olds with one another because we find that older kids become role models for the younger kids. Younger kids to want to impress the older kids. Jennifer stated, “The older kids are impressed by the younger kids’ capabilities, which is an opportunity to show an older generation how capable they are. There’s a different dynamic now in the school, a dynamic that creates community engagement and realization of our students’ abilities.”
WCTD’s Goal:
We Connect The Dots’ mission for the CODE-A-THON is to offer resources and advice needed to grow the capacity for schools to execute more programs without us. We want to give that spark to host-sites to begin to get local businesses and other local organizations involved and show them the value of having such programs. We have empowered students in Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York and we seek to expand this mission across the United States and other parts of the world.
REGISTER for the upcoming We-Connect-the-Dots CODE-A-THON in January 2020 and be a part of this immersive program!
We Connect The Dots excites, informs and educates students about Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) careers with a strong focus on computer science. Through a collaboration with the community, education, government, and the technology industry, WCTD provides awareness and education of the 21st Century workforce skills and STEAM careers.