Computer Science Awards
As befits a computer science teacher, Josh Block composed his remarks for the awards ceremony on his iPhone and read them off its screen at the assembly.
One glitch: Dennis Poggi, the president of the student council this past year, text messaged Block in the middle of his speech, effectively covering the text of the speech. “Several students asked me why I paused in the middle of the presentation,” chuckled Block, who explained Poggi’s joke to them.
“A computer scientist has already played a roll in every person’s life on this room today, and it is only 10:00 a.m. Whether it was the computer in the car you drove here, the light switch you flipped or the telephone you used.
Two students will certainly play a roll in shaping the future of society through computer science, math and engineering. The first [computer science] award goes to David Roher. David has used his math and programming ability to discover baseball statistics that had never been discovered before, [wrote an article about it] and got published in an academic journal. He also has beaten me to the answers on math questions in the teacher/ student academic challenge competition. I am sure David’s programming skills will lead the Yankees to their next World Series win.
The next [computer science] award goes to Jacob Franco. Jacob is a force for change in our school community. He has used his problem solving skills and programming skills to help coordinate seminar day and, [beyond Greeley] to schedule doctors for surgery and office hours. I have no doubt that Jake will one day write a program to solve the problem of homelessness in the world.”
These students were selected from recommendations by the entire math department as well as computer science, explained Block.
Rochester Institute of Technology Computing Medal and Scholarship Program
“This is an award given to juniors for excellence in computer science, math and other sciences as well,” explained Block. “The decision is made jointly by the math and sciences departments, to honor students who have shown an interest in integrating technology into their course work.”
“Caryn Laska, one of the winners, plans to work for Neighbor’s Link in Mt. Kisco this summer,” Block reported, “using her computer programming skills to organize their databases.”
“Jeffrey Benton, the other winner, modifies games online and creates virtual worlds,” Block said admiringly.
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