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Overview
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We all know that in the past few years, Computer Programming has transformed from a specialized field of study to a subject that everyone should have some understanding of. It is quite literally applicable to every other field. Professionals in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and business fields rely on their programming skills to complete their routine work. Someone with good programming skills may develop code or scripts to integrate and glue software applications together, process/mine their data and generate reports. Even non-technical staff needs to write Excel Macros. Programming and computer languages have become a distinct advantage (and sometimes even a requirement) for future employment. Colleges know this development too. Just to name a few, Harvard has pledged to increase its Computer Science faculty by more than 50% with the recent donation by Steve Ballmer (Harvard ’77 and former CEO of Microsoft), and Yale has started funding and expanding its Computer Science department heavily.
Highly aware of this change, some ACES staff and parents have begun brainstorming how we can help and prepare our kids for the future. Letting them experience and feel a computer language at early age is the solution we reached. This process will make a computer language become native tongue instead of a “foreign language” for them. During this time of learning, if they find a love of programming and excel, they can move forward to pursuing prestigious competition paths such as USACO (USA Computing Olympiad).