CodeHS Student Journey: From High School to Syracuse University

CodeHS Student Journey: From High School to Syracuse University

Justin started out coding in JavaScript on CodeHS, and is now pursuing an exciting business and programming career.

One of our favorite things to hear are student stories who pursue computer science beyond high school. We recently caught up with a former CodeHS student, Justin Gluska, who is now studying Computer Science with a minor in Information, Design, and Startups (IDS) at Syracuse University. He’s on track to graduate in the Spring 2023 and is excited to step into a career pursuing what he’s most passionate about — business and programming.

Justin has always been interested in programming even in early middle school when he would simply mess around with random code before producing anything of value. But it wasn’t until 9th grade when Justin really started to learn how to code at Nova High School in Florida. He began by playing around in HTML/CSS, after his computer science teacher, Jesse White, challenged him to learn how to make a website over winter break.

In high school, Justin took both Java and JavaScript courses with CodeHS. His favorite part about learning to code on CodeHS was the ability to practice. He could learn programming through reading, but actually practicing his knowledge in an online IDE allowed him to ensure he was mastering it. This only sparked his interest even more in computer science.

Justin described computer science as a very application-based skill to develop. “If you’re interested in pursuing computer science, make sure to practice. Most of the things I learned is when I closed the textbook and took my knowledge into developing a random idea or project recommendation I found on the internet. Just keep trying and you’ll learn with every project, whether it’s a success or failure!”

During college, Justin has taken basic and intermediate programming courses, as well as, data structures and algorithms. Currently, his favorite programming language is Swift because he loves the iOS application development environment. He already has two apps in the app store (Auxie — a yearly music reward for Apple Music and Music Hop — a daily music library rewind) and is working on a project for local hospitals.

While pursuing some side projects, Justin has found a new interest in the business side of computer science. He hopes to merge his passion for computer science and business concepts to create a software business. Over the last year, he’s launched goldpenguin.org, a digital marketing and website development company. He’s been building websites in JavaScript thanks to CodeHS, and decided to port this over to a WordPress website business to help various different businesses across the country.