Fall’18, Rovi Porter ’22, Fletcher Maynard Academy
In my first semester at MIT, I am unsure about which major I want to pursue. That being said, I have always enjoyed teaching. I was on the robotics team in high school and I organized and taught elementary and middle schoolers about robotics and programming over week long academies. These weeks were always fun-filled and busy. When I found out that an elementary school near MIT had a Sisters with a Dream program to teach young girls how to code, I knew I wanted to get involved. The group of about 25 girls from third to fifth grade meets every week after school. I am able to help the teachers at Maynard Academy to teach these girls about coding. It was exciting to teach them a little bit about binary code and how computers process code. This position has been exciting because I am able to see the girls every week and see how they grow. The girls are also very involved and curious which makes teaching and planning lessons rewarding. Teaching the girls has been a great addition to my experience as a college freshman.
I have lived in Hawaii my entire life and deciding to come to Cambridge was a huge change. However, the people at MIT have been very supportive and ensured that there were people to check in every once in a while. It is crazy that the semester is half way over. It seems as though time seems to fly by and there are many clubs and activities that I want to try out. This semester I am taking four classes and one seminar. I have also become a freshman representative for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). The program that I am involved with is the Women in Science and Engineering, this program deals with high schoolers from around Massachusetts. Each month we present a topic such as Biological Engineering and spend one Saturday exploring that topic with lab tours and presentations. With everything going on, I have to say my semester is going pretty well. I also want to say thank you to the PKG Center and Sisters with a Dream for giving me the opportunity to work with the elementary school girls.
