Jackie Piepkorn

Aspiring software engineer









Introduction
My name is Jackie Piepkorn and I am in eleventh grade at Brea Olinda High School. I am part of the Global Information Technology Academy (GITA) here, which is a four year program designed to teach students multiple languages of coding. I discovered coding in elementary school through Khan Academy's JavaScript, and I have loved it ever since.



Junior Year
Currently, I am learning Flash Animation in GITA. Because I am not artistic, the drawing is very difficult for me. In order to overcome this, I have to spend many hours at home working on my projects this year. Along with GITA, I am taking five academic classes. My academic classes are AP US History, AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP Environmental Science, and AP Language and Composition. I am also planning to take the AP Computer Science Principles exam to further my experience in Computer Science.



Activities
I am involved in a variety of activities both on and off campus. I partcipate in marching band, where I am saxophone co-section leader. This experience has taught me both patience and responsibility. I am also Vice President of Band Council, which is a committee that organizes band events. In addition, I am president of Lady IT. This club is dedicated to introducing young girls to computer science and information technology, and it teaches coding to girls at local elementary schools. Other clubs I partcipate in are Academic Decathlon and Express Yourself Club, where I am Vice President in both. I am also a part of National Honor Society. This is my third year as a captain of the Band Basketball Association, a group that formally organizes basketball games in which both members and non-members of band can participate. Finally, in summer of 2018, I attended the National Congress of Future Science and Technology Leaders in Massachusetts. At this event, I watched inspiring speakers discuss their path to success in the STEM field.



Goals
High School Goals:
This year, I want to achieve a 95% or above in every class. So far, this has proven to be a realistic goal. I want to achieve a "5" on all six of my AP exams, but my priorities are AP Calculus AB and AP Biology. Next year, I have many goals relating to leadership. I would like to continue my presidency in Lady IT and vice presidency in Express Yourself Club, but I also plan to become president of both Band Council and Academic Decathlon. In band, I want to become Field Captain because I enjoy marching and want to be able to help more people than before. I would also like to become Treasurer of National Honor Society because I am passionate about math and want to contribute to the club more. My computer science goals for this year are to successfully complete my Flash projects, my Computer Science Principles projects, and learn the basics of Structured Query Language (SQL). For the SAT, I want to achieve a perfect score of 1600, but I would settle for a 1550+ if necessary. I want to get an 800 on the Math II, Biology Molecular, and US History Subject Tests.
Post-High School Goals:
My dream college has always truly been Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The opportunity to study Computer Science at a campus I have toured multiple times since I was in sixth grade seems incredible to me. I want to become a software engineer because computer science is versatile in today's world and is something that robots will likely never be able to do themselves. Computer science means I can do a job I am passionate about. Other schools I am interested in are UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Harvey Mudd. My ultimate goal is to work at Khan Academy because it was the company that inspired me to pursue coding in the first place. I want to develop programs for young children to learn coding because I think it is a very necessary field in modern society and I want other children to find happiness in computer science like I do.