East Hartford High School has earned the College Board AP® Computer Science Female Diversity Award for achieving high female representation in AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) during the 2023-2024 school year. Schools honored with an AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award have expanded access to AP computer science courses for female students in their communities.
EHHS was one of only 847 schools or institutions nationwide to receive this award for last school year. Award contenders must either have reached 50% or higher female representation in its AP computer science courses or have achieved a percentage of female computer science exam takers that meets or exceeds that of the school’s female population.
AP Computer Science Teacher Ray Campbell said he had 15 female students in his class last year out of the 23 total students enrolled.
"I'm lucky to teach several electives that are popular with a broad range of students including Photography and Graphic Design. When someone has the academic talent to take AP, I encourage them to sign up,” said Campbell. "In our world, everyone should not only use computers, but know how they work and a bit about how to program them."
"Taking this class meant that I could further explore my passion for problem solving and work toward my aspirations to pursue actuarial sciences, which deal heavily with data manipulation," said Joy Frimpong, an EHHS student currently taking AP Computer Science.
Afrin Galliwala, who is also currently enrolled, said she decided to take the class to learn more about coding.
"I decided it would be a good skill to have for the future," said Galliwalla.
She added, "I think it is important for girls to take computer science because it is highly applicable to many different fields of interest. Having a skill like coding would be a major advantage to many girls with career aspirations, especially as the world technologically advances."