Carl ’19 Shares Her Love of Coding with Younger Students

Lauren Carl ’19 has been passionate about STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) subjects for as long as she can remember. She had a computer from a young age, and her technology-inclined dad would sit her down and teach her what he knew.

“I just remember that being an important part of my childhood,” she said.

When it came time for Carl to pick a Girl Scouts Gold Award project in 2016, she knew almost exactly what she wanted to do: help make technology a part of other people’s childhoods. She visited Dahlia Levin at the National Center for Children and Families, where Carl had completed a project in Middle School to restock the library with a book drive. NCCF is a Bethesda-based nonprofit child and family welfare agency with a commitment to serving disadvantaged, abused, neglected and/or abandoned children, youth, and their families.

During her visits to NCCF, Carl had noticed that the computer lab was out of date. It lacked modern equipment, and it had only three computers to serve a large population. She wanted to help, so she and Levin came up with a plan.

Throughout the summer before her sophomore year at NCS, Carl developed a proposal to revamp the lab, complete with 10 new computers, a printer, and new software—all with the goal of teaching children at the center how to use a computer and spark their interest in STEAM subjects. Carl reached out to companies, recommended by Levin, that had worked with NCCF in the past, which led her to Accenture. After hearing her plan to lead a computer skills and coding class with the new resources, the consulting company agreed to provide funding.

Carl spent the majority of her sophomore year setting up the lab and building a curriculum for NCCF students. Around the same time, she joined the Upper School Girls Who Code club and helped launch the inaugural NCS hackathon, an event in which Upper Schoolers teach younger students to code, build and program robots, engage in virtual reality, 3-D print, and more. NCS hosted its third annual hackathon in February, and it continues to grow each year.

Now the co-club president of Girls Who Code, Carl has helped manage planning and logistics for the hackathon each year.

“The hackathon started out as a need for teaching experience, but then it turned into a lot more than that. It ended up being super fun, and I really liked all the avenues of STEM that we could look at in one afternoon,” she said.

For a year and a half, Carl has taught the computer and coding class at NCCF once a week to elementary and middle school students. Each session brings about 10 students, and Carl starts by walking them through basic computer skills.

At school, she said, “All these kids are typing really fast and know how to do all this stuff,” leaving the children at the center feeling overwhelmed. “It was a lot of playing this catch-up game to get them ready and feeling confident,” she recalled.

As the students’ confidence and abilities grow, they graduate to coding and learning Java or Scratch. Carl borrowed ideas from the hackathon and vice versa from her class. A new group of families moves through the NCCF shelter every six weeks or so, so Carl regularly starts the curriculum over again.

“The children often don’t have many opportunities to learn about technology, computers, and code, and this certainly gives them that exposure. Empowering them is key, and giving them a place where they can be successful is what we are looking to create,” said Levin, director of external affairs at NCCF. “Lauren’s contribution matters deeply to the children, youth, and families we serve.”

When describing the class, Carl said, “Their eyes light up when they enter the room, and they immediately run over and start typing and are excited for everything. … A lot of these kids are going to grow up, go to college, get a job—whatever their future has in store for them—but they’re going to need to use computers. That’s just the future. And It’s important to get that foundation now so they can start growing and start that journey upward,” she said.

The project has been fulfilling for Carl, and she hopes it will encourage more students to pursue STEAM education. When she leaves for college in the fall at William & Mary, the NCCF classes will continue under the leadership of a Georgetown Day School student who heard about the program and, eventually, Carl’s sister, who has volunteered with her throughout high school.

Though Carl has her career sights set on scientific research, in the fields of computer science or biology, she can definitely see herself teaching again down the road.