Student News

  CS Students Give Back To The Community

Bacon Tutors Fourth-Graders

Computer Science major, Kelli Bacon, took her love of math to another level last semester when she tutored local grade-schoolers.  Kelli helped in the Gonzaga University outreach program by tutoring two 4th grade girls every Saturday morning for about three months.  She said the girls were struggling with math and learning their multiplication tables.  Kelli said the girls worked hard and she was surprised that she made a bigger impact than she thought.  The girls connected with her so strongly that they planned several sleepovers on Friday nights so they could study before Kelli’s tutoring sessions on Saturday.  Kelli tried to make their tutoring sessions fun and even taught the girls the trick she says her mom gave her to help with learning the multiplications for nine.   

The two girls also found creative ways to practice their math.  They even took their homework bowling and did math problems while waiting for the pins to be set up.  Kelli says they had a lot of energy and really wanted to learn.  She says she misses the time they shared as the girls greeted her with notes and hugs each week.  “If the girls had continued with the program this semester, I would have kept tutoring them even though I don’t really have time. We just really developed a bond.”

Kelli, a junior at Gonzaga, did a research project with the Algorithms and Applications Group at Parasol Laboratory in Texas last summer and worked on creating a graph generator library.  She credits a great math teacher in 7th grade with sparking her own interest in math. 

The tutoring program matches Gonzaga students from several programs, including engineering and computer science, with local 3rd through 12th graders for individual tutoring in math. Currently about 50 local students come to the campus on Saturday morning to participate.

  

Datteri Designs Email for Seniors

Ryan Datteri spent his summer helping redesign an email program to be more user friendly for elders.  Ryan interned at the Research Experience for Undergraduates at Hope College in Michigan, where he programmed a fully functional email interface for seniors. 

Ryan listened to feedback from volunteers at a local senior center about what would make an email program more elder-friendly. He and a student partner then worked to create a program that was easier to see and use for people who might not be computer savvy or were experiencing vision problems. 

After creating the program, Ryan worked with the seniors to test it in their homes.  He says, “I think one of the neatest memories I had from my learning experience was having a volunteer test my program, really like it, and ask if they could use it as their permanent email client.”

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation. Ryan is a junior in Gonzaga’s Computer Science program and says his main interest is in programming.