The Origin of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School’s Kids Consultants Club
CodeHS Inspire Fellow, Alean Cook, Started a Kids Consultant Club After Noticing a Need to Properly Regulate the Robust After-School Programs
Hello, I’m Alean Cook, a Computer Science Teacher at Cristo Rey Jesuit HS in Atlanta, Georgia. I am also the Department Chair, Robotics Advisor, and currently the Kids Consultants Club Advisor. This is my 18th year of teaching and my 3rd year as a Robotics advisor.
Through teaching, my goal is to help break generational poverty in the Black/Latino community (especially in the inner city) by providing education and exposure to computer science. At Cristo Rey, we have 50 different after-school programs, organizations and sports teams. Students frequently question the clubs’ moderators, meeting hours, locations, game schedules, and team members. I saw this problem arise and took it as an opportunity for my students to be creative and provide a solution. This is where the Kids Consultants Club was born.
Through the CodeHS Inspire Fellowship, my goal of the Kids Consultants Club was to introduce students from various clubs to the CodeHS platform and teach them how to create websites with Bootstrap and HTML. This would provide a centralized spot for students around the school to learn more about these extracurriculars.
The main challenge I experienced was time management, on both my and the students’ parts. I had to strike a balance amongst the four clubs for which I serve as moderator. I’ve also recently started teaching AP Computer Science A, alongside Intro to Java to students who have no programming experience. I had to backtrack to research if balancing all of this was even feasible. Members of the Kids Consultants Club have hectic schedules as well; they are pursuing Microsoft Certifications and participating in many school groups. It was quite tough to find the time to learn a new skill set.
Throughout the year, the Kids Consultants Club had an impact on nearly 40 students!
The Kids Consultants Club project had an impact on students who had little to no coding experience or training. Now that they’ve found “their people”, we have weekly hackathons in my classroom. They eat healthy (and occasionally not-so-healthy) snacks while having a safe space to have fun and write code.
Sean Awet, who is a 15 year old avid programmer and freshman at Cristo Rey Atlanta, stepped up to the plate at the first meeting and hit a home run! I nominated Sean to become the president of the Kids Consultants Club (KCC) group and he has done an amazing job this year. Sean is the designer of the KCC website. He also enjoys building PCs and watching movies. Sean hopes to build his coding skills even further after the KCC project.
“My experience building my first website was definitely a learning experience. It was fun formatting my website with Bootstrap, CSS and HTML, trying to see what fit my vision of the website. I am proud of the website and how it turned out.”
Here is a video of Sean walking through the initial phase of the KCC Website.
The Kids Consultants Club Project was a success because students are not only learning how to design websites from scratch using HTML and Bootstrap, but they are also learning the technical vocabulary required to communicate their needs. I smile every time I hear them having serious discussions about Jumbotrons.
I intend to develop a full program in which students will learn full stack development in order to gain access to high-paying jobs and career opportunities.
The CodeHS Inspire Fellowship provided me with valuable exposure and education. I now have a better awareness of the significance of ensuring that we as educators close the technology STEM gap in Black, Latino, and Native American communities.
Read more stories about how CodeHS Inspire Fellows have expanded computer science education to Black, Latino, and Native American students in their community!
