Thinking of studying computer science? Apply to Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute and Generation Google Scholarship!

Eager to expand your Computer Science skills with the help from Google engineers? Never coded before but would love to learn? If you are a high school senior thinking about studying Computer Science or a related field, apply to the 2015 Google Computer Science Summer Institute and Generation Google Scholarship! 

Last summer, I was selected as 1 of 30 students nationally to attend the CSSI Mountain View, California Session. Spending a part of my summer at Google in Mountain View, California and learning from Google engineers was incredible!

Below is information directly from the Google CSSI team about how to apply. Hurry: the deadline is March 5th! Feel free to ask me any questions - don't miss your chance to embark on an incredible adventure!

"Subject: Thinking of studying computer science? Apply to Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute and Generation Google Scholarship!

At Google, we believe information should be universally accessible. Our education and scholarship programs aim to inspire and help students become future leaders in computing and technology by breaking down the barriers that prevent them from entering these fields.  We are now accepting applications for the Generation Google Scholarship and Computer Science Summer Institute. Read more below and apply today!

Generation Google Scholarship

The Generation Google Scholarship helps aspiring computer scientists excel in technology and become leaders in the field. Selected students will receive 10,000 USD (for those studying in the US) or 5,000 CAD (for those studying in Canada) for the 2015-2016 school year. As part of the scholarship, current high school seniors who are entering their first year of university in 2015-2016 will be required to attend Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI) in the summer of 2015.

Please visit www.google.com/students/generationgoogle for more information and to apply!

Computer Science Summer Institute

Google is invested in increasing the enrollment and retention of computer science students. With this in mind, we’re hosting our eighth annual Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI), a three-week introduction to computer science for graduating high school seniors with a passion for technology —especially students from historically underrepresented groups in the field. This year, we will offer two types of sessions, day-camp and residential:

Day-camp sessions are for students within a specified mileage distance from the respective day-camp offices (Mountain View, CA = 60 miles, New York City, NY = 100 miles, Chicago, IL = 30 miles). Students will be provided with a travel stipend and expected to commute into the respective Google offices for each day of CSSI. Day-camps locations and dates are:

• Mountain View, CA: July 13th - July 31st
• Chicago, IL: July 20th - Aug 7th
• New York City, NY: July 20th - Aug 7th

Residential sessions are for students outside the mileage distance of day-camps. Student housing and transportation will be provided. Residential locations and dates are:

• Cambridge, MA: July 13th - July 31st
• Seattle, WA: July 13th - July 31st

CSSI is not your average summer camp. It's an intensive, interactive, hands-on and fun program that seeks to inspire the tech leaders and innovators of tomorrow by supporting the study of computer science, software engineering, and other closely related subjects. As CSSI students, you will learn programming fundamentals directly from Google engineers, get an inside look at some of Google's most exciting, emerging technologies, and even design and develop your very own application with fellow participants that you will showcase to Googlers in local offices.

We are looking for students eager to spend a few weeks immersed in the Google life – tackling interesting technical problems, working collaboratively and having fun. We want students to leave empowered, heading into their first year of college armed with a unique learning experience that can only be found at Google. The program is open to all qualified high school seniors, and is committed to addressing diversity in the field of computer science. Students who are a member of a group that is historically underrepresented in the technology industry are encouraged to apply.

Please visit www.google.com/students/cssi for more information and to apply!

Application deadline: March 5, 2015. Final decisions will be announced by early May at the latest. "

PRESENTATION DAY!

In the morning, our team practiced our presentation a few last times in a breakout room.

Last lunch at Google :(. We lived it up!

Photobooth finale:

Slide finale:

Android sculpture pics:

Afternoon was presentation time!

Technology helps people connect, create, and remember experiences. Our appliction is Kinetic - "bring energy to the e-celebration."
Our slideshow:

KINETIC: Try our app at:
ecard-cssi.appspot.com

It was an incredible experience to be able to present to Googlers in Mountain View and to Googlers around the world through the live broadcast. I also loved listening to the other CSSIers' presentations. Everyone did amazing work!

After presentations, Google hosted a party for us. At the party, Kinetic was announced as the winner of the people's choice award. Our team worked very hard to have Kinetic's interface be sleek and user friendly - it was so exciting that our peers and Googlers loved our app!
We received a super cute android prize :).
We are Kinetic:

Google presented all CSSIers with 'graduation' presents. We were gifted memorable CSSI photo frames and swagging graduation hats along with some other goodies. Google also gave us a scholarship to be used for books in college!

I am truly grateful to Google, our CSSI instructors, and the TAs who have helped my fellow CSSIers and me to challenge ourselves to improve our coding knowledge and abilies. We will carry the friendships and connections we've formed through life.
Dear Google, its been cray and I've loved every minute!

Live for today, code for tomorrow. PRESENTATIONS TOMORROW! We have been updating our code constantly to make our application work better (and keep it working). Our team is frantically debugging and Samuel is adding some last minute touches to our CSS. It's an intense day for everyone, especially with presentations tomorrow. The presentations are going to be broadcasted live to Googlers around the world - so legit.

At lunch, we escaped coding to have food and FUN! Sabera and I ate at Big Table and they literally have everything. Ahhh creme brulee!

We visited the Google photobooth and chose the bubble theme. Yay Bubbles!

 

Slid down the secret slide (different than the metal, more well-known slide that we slid down last week).

In the afternoon, we practiced our presentation... we're so ready for tomorrow. 

We're the three Googleteers. It's catchy, right?

Presentation prepping, still coding, still de-bugging...trying to loop more components. Today was exhausting. Dear Mac - you're so beautiful but your screen brightness burns. (Abril just mentioned I can turn the brightness down - yay knowledgable Mac users). She's just shaking her head. Apparently, the keyboard brightness can also be turned down. I spent all day basically attached to the computer.

At lunch, we escaped the computer screens and coding to catch some fresh air. Biking felt great! Lunch was legit.

Before resuming our group app development, we had a session on presenting with confidence. It must have been an interesting presentation for the 'presenter' to give. We practiced 'confidence' pitches in small group settings. It was a fun break from coding.

And after the break...Ya know.

Before we knew, it was time for dinner. At dinner there is a mystery Googler who Abril and I have seen every single day. My goal before I leave is to speak to the Googler - just to say hi.

This sums up my life:

READY TO CODE ALL DAY TOMORROW? You bet, especially if it means that our application will work! Like I said on day 1...BRING IT!

Our application is coming along nicely! We officially have a name for our application and our logo is in process.

More coding, combining, bugs, and de-bugging. Overall, today was more intense than yesterday and we are progressing as a team. We are thinking about Friday - the presentation day. Thursday we will be doing practice presentations, so I am beginning to prep (outline) our presentation. I truly love working with my group!

At lunch we went to Root, a new favorite introduced in last week's blogpost. Sadly, the food today was not very good, but they did have delicious cookies. I guess the cookies compensated for the disappointment.

On the way back from Root, the bike area was empty so we walked instead.

In the afternoon, we had resume time with Google resume readers. They looked over our resumes and gave up tips for improving them. They identified what they look for in resume formatting and their advice was helpful.

At dinner there was ice cream! We love ice cream! Sabera did not like the orange ice cream....I like orange ice cream. I will truly miss not having free ice cream.

On the way over to the workout room, a few of us took a selfie because Shailee is was wearing an awesome minion hat. My cousin who works at Google likes minions so we sent him the selfie - too cool!

Tonight I'll be dreaming in code.

Last Monday at the Googleplex (sad face). Our group did some intense coding today for our project!

In the morning, we worked together in a conference room and each focused on coding specific sections.

A few things I've learned from today's group experience:

• Merging/combining code can be challenging
• The challenge can be minimized if the group agrees on handle and variable names and uses them consistently
• Overwriting code happens
• To prevent overwriting, code should be manipulated in a place other than the main document

During lunch, Abril and I attempted to visit a new area of campus, but the section was closed off for construction work. We re-routed and found a smoothie cafe. 

While coding in the afternoon, we met a young 12 year old boy who is passionate about coding. The boy's father is a fallen Navy Seal and Google brought the boy to visit the Googleplex to meet coders, engineers, and us. We shared our project idea with him, showed him some of our code, and demoed how our app looks so far. It was special to be able to share our project plan! 

Our team works very well together and accomplished our goals for today. Successful coding today? Samuel says, "Yesssss." We are trying to anticipate tomorrow's challenges and are working out a few details tonight so that tomorrow will go smoothly. 

PALO ALTO!

Sundays are free days and today Quinn and I decided to journey into Palo Alto to explore. We quickly grabbed breakfast at the hotel and called a Lyft (similar to Uber). If you live in the Mountain View area, I would definitely recommend Lyft since the first ride is free with a download of the app.

Once arriving in Palo Alto, we walked Main Street. We went into many cute stores on our walk and chatted. I love learning from listening to other peoples' perspectives.

There are so many restaurants and cafes in Palo Alto. Deciding where to eat was difficult, but we settled on a crepe cafe that was very busy. We used business = yumminess as an indicator and it was spot on.

We left downtown Palo Alto to visit the Stanford campus and meet up with my friend Meghan, a Stanford student who is currently conducting research over the summer. It was truly awesome to spend time with her today! She shared some of her Stanford experiences with us as well as tips for college. Meghan also provided me with insights into her Microsoft YouthSpark Challenge for Change experience since she was 1 of the 5 winners of the competition last year. This year, I was 1 of the 5 winners of the Challenge and I look forward to discussing and comparing our Microsoft experiences. I am excited to go with to Ecuador with Microsoft based on what Meghan told me about her trip to Kenya with Microsoft.

Meghan, Quinn, and I went up to the top of Hoover Tower which overlooked Stanford's campus and the surrounding area. The view was so clear that we could even see San Francisco!

Stanford:

With Meghan:
M is for Microsoft!!!

Pictures from Hoover Tower:

 I would definitely consider Stanford for grad school...

I had a wonderful day in Palo Alto! Tonight I'm working on my part to prep for the group project so that we can be prepared to "jump-on-it" tomorrow. Can't wait to code and experience the intensity of the group project! I know this week might get rough, but working to produce an awesome application to present to Googlers on Friday is beyond exciting!