CodeHS Intern Spotlight: Cole’s Path from High School Coder to College Intern

CodeHS Intern Spotlight: Cole’s Path from High School Coder to College Intern

Meet Cole Young and Discover How Early Exposure to Coding and a Passion for Accessibility Helped Him Make a Difference at CodeHS

This summer, CodeHS has been lucky to have a group of amazing interns, including some that used CodeHS in high school to jumpstart their careers in computer science. One of these interns is Cole Young, a junior at University of California Irvine. He spoke with us about what it has been like interning at CodeHS and how CodeHS helped him begin his career in coding.

Cole is double majoring in Computer Science and Informatics, and he remembers his first experience with coding back in middle school. At that time, he was introduced to coding through Scratch, which is a block-based programming platform. In high school, he jumped into an AP Computer Science course and found that coding was something he excelled at. He quickly recognized that computer science would be incredibly useful in his career.

Cole says, “Having early exposure to programming put me in the right mindset for my college classes. I was able to learn the basics and was taught the problem solving skills I needed to succeed in my college classes.”

Collaborating With The CodeHS Engineering Team

Cole explains that one of his favorite parts about working at CodeHS this summer has been working with the engineering team. “A lot of what I have worked on has been a big team effort. It has been nice to work with a team where everyone is contributing towards one goal.” He mentions that this has been especially true in his work on the new CodeHS AI Tools.

CodeHS is currently developing and testing new Artificial Intelligence tools for teachers, and Cole was able to contribute to the new AI Hints tool. With this tool, teachers are able to send hints to students that need extra help and they can choose the level of hint they can send to their students. Cole helped create a feature where teachers can set a default hint level. Learn more about AI Hints here.

Making Coding More Accessible

One of Cole’s goals in his career is to make using computers more accessible to everyone. In particular, Cole has been working on how to make websites more accessible to people who are blind or colorblind.

Many people who are visually impaired use screen-readers to read web pages. Screen readers are assistive technology that either read pages aloud or provide information through Braille, and programmers can make screen readers work better for people who are blind through the way they write HTML. Additionally, there are many things programmers can do to assist people who are colorblind.

“There is a big focus now on accessibility to help more people have access to computer science, and this is something I would like to see a lot more of.” He continues to explain that working to make websites more accessible for people is so rewarding because he can really see the impact of the work he is doing.

Advice For Students Interested In Computer Science

When asked if he had any advice for middle schoolers or high schoolers just learning how to code, Cole said, “Don’t stress out too much about stuff. A lot of people worry about having the perfect resume. The most important thing is that you are excited to learn new things. It’s not about knowing everything. It is about having the openness to learn and being willing to learn from others. Looking back at old CodeHS lessons from high school, it makes me happy because it shows me how far I have come. If high school me saw the coding I can do now, it would blow my mind.”