Students at Centennial CVI win a NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing
April 7, 2022
GUELPH, Ontario – Congratulations are in order to Centennial CVI students Victoria and Emma for winning a NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing (AiC).
The NCWIT Award for AiC honours 9th-12th grade girls, genderqueer, or non-binary students for their computing-related achievements and interests, and encourages them to pursue their passions.
The NCWIT Award for AiC has a multi-tiered structure that includes: Winner, Honourable Mention, Rising Star, and Certificate of Distinction. Victoria won the Rising Star Award and Emma won the Honourable Mention Award.
Victoria said she was shocked when she first found out that she had won the award.
“It felt inspiring to be able to join a community of other similar people, all with different backgrounds and goals, but still like minded. It also felt good for being acknowledged for the hard work that was put into developing this computing career,” said Victoria.
Emma says she loves computing because it allows her to be creative.
“I am able to use my imagination to create a real thing that I can program to do whatever I would like. Computing also challenges me and there is always some new problem to solve so I never get bored with it,” said Emma.
They were encouraged to apply for the award by their Introduction to Computer Science teacher Brad Cutten. Cutten described both students as having an excellent work ethic.
“They enthusiastically take to learning new concepts and strive to complete assigned tasks to a very high standard of correctness,” said Cutten, which is why he encouraged both students to apply and provided a reference for their applications.
Since winning their awards both Emma and Victoria continue to practice their skills in computing by taking up their own personal projects.
“One thing I’m really interested in at the moment is creating a website and designing it from scratch”, said Emma.
“I am currently learning C++, which is a programming language, to be better prepared for writing the CCC (Canadian Computing Competition)”, said Victoria.