A senior at Carrollton High School received an academic award as part of the College Board National Recognition Programs.

Emily Conn was chosen based on her academic performance and because she attends school in a small town — one of the criteria chosen by the College Board for the award.

The College Board National Recognition Programs allocates students academic honors which can be included on college and scholarship applications. 

Colleges use these honors to identify students from underrepresented groups who have excelled in the classroom and on college entry exams.

Emily said she was excited to receive the award.

“Receiving this award was particularly satisfying,” she said. “Generally, the awards that I’ve received and that I have seen others receive focus primarily on grades and the numbers. This award obviously took those into consideration, but it also acknowledged the position I was in when I got those numbers.”

She said it can be stressful being compared to other top students.

“As a student it can be scary to feel like you’ll always be compared to the best of the best even if they have different situations and sometimes different privileges,” she said. “However, through this recognition I feel like there is some acknowledgment of the fact that some students do attend smaller schools, yet through focus and utilization of the resources you do have you can not only compare, but shine. The award is an exciting reminder of not only where I currently am, but also where I will be able to go.” 

Emily’s future looks bright.

“I have applied to NYU, Georgia Tech, Emory, and the University of Washington. I’ve already been accepted to Georgia Tech and am waiting to hear back from the rest,” she said. “I’m planning on majoring in biology with the hope to eventually go to medical school to study to become a surgeon. No matter which college I go to, I hope to be able to study abroad and to also participate in student-led research.”

Students involved in the Computer Science Pathway at Carrollton High School have had a productive school year thus far. 

More than half of the students in the program have published new works into the Global Marketplace and that number is continuing to grow.

Collectively, the program has published five iOS apps, three Android apps, 14 SnapChat filters and more than 20 Roblox games.

Robby Blakemore, CHS computer science instructor, said the year has been full of amazing projects for the program. One of his favorites to date was an app students made to help individuals find their way around the Carrollton City Schools campus.

“I loved the Trojan Map app for iOS,” said Blakemore. “This app is a favorite of mine because it took a large team of students to develop it. The idea was pretty straightforward. A student thought it would be cool to have an app that helps people learn their way around our large campus. To implement it, we needed teams of students to collect GPS coordinates around the campus as well as a group of students that charted and diagrammed points of interest. Once we had the data, the students programmed each point into geometric shapes representing the classroom and various amenities. This task resulted in 40,000 lines of code, which easily exceeds any previous project.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs for computer and information technology occupations will grow significantly — a 13 percent increase — from 2020-2030. 

Blakemore said he would encourage students interested in a career in computer science to continue refining their ability to learn.

“Technology will continue to change and chances are that what you learn today won't be relevant tomorrow,” he said. “However, understanding how to be a good learner is a skill that will never go away.”

Additionally, he noted that students who are not interested in computer science as a career should also learn what they can on the subject.

“Soon every industry will require some kind of computational thinking. Having a framework for how to think like a computer will be essential for every career in the future.”