Communications of the ACM
Microsoft Employee Connects High-Tech Professionals With Local Students
"Schools want computer science programs, but they can't do it on their own. This is a need we can meet," says TEALS founder Kevin Wang, a Microsoft program manager.
Credit: Jeanne Gustafson
A Microsoft software engineer has launched an innovative computer science program that's connecting volunteers from the high-tech industry with high school students in the Seattle suburbs.
Kevin Wang worked as a computer science teacher before joining Microsoft after graduate school and said he missed teaching after he left the profession. After a couple of years at Microsoft, Wang realized that a typical trait of high-tech work — "Very few people come in to work before 10 a.m.," he says — created an opportunity for him to volunteer to teach a computer science class in the morning before heading into his job at Microsoft's Redmond campus.
"With all the schools around that need computer science teachers, I realized there's a huge opportunity," he said.
Wang taught a morning computer science class at University Prep, and the experience went so well that when additional school districts approached him about the possibility of teaching, he hatched a plan to expand the program, now called Technology Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS), and started enlisting volunteers.
Last year, the program pilot included 10 volunteer teachers who taught at four high schools. The program has since expanded to 13 area schools, including three high schools. This year 36 industry professional volunteers (including 30 Microsoft employees) are teaching computer science classes to 740 teens.
From Sammamish Patch
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