Governor's School

I am attending the Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence in Information, Society & Technology in the summer of 2008 at Drexel in Philadelphia.

Governor's Schools

The Governor's Schools are free summer programs paid for by the PA state government for high school students. They have them in a variety of topics at a variety of colleges in the state. Tuition as well as room and board are paid for by the state - at no cost to the student.

Why I want to attend

Unofficial - not part of the application

I've always loved technology. (I think this website can attest!) I am at the crossroads now with GridView. Over the past month I had to learn how to manage a Linux server and tune it for performance. I'm still not at 100%.

But I am also interested in the social effects of technology. I ordered an XO Laptop (with my own $$) to play with its user interface and think about the impact it will have on the developing world.

I also like meeting with people in my age group who share my passion. This program will bring together the top 50 soon-to-be-high-school-seniors for an intensive 5 week program. I can't wait for it to start!

What do you expect to get out of our program academically and socially?

Academically: Advanced MySQL, proper project management techniques, moderate to advanced Linux server administration, or something totally different!
Socially: Meeting people who share my interests and spending time with them on projects and making contacts for future work

What are some of your hobbies

Computers: primarily web design, PHP, MySQL, project management
Walking
Hanging out with friends in a productive way (Tecker 911)
Successfully completing beautiful, intelligent design work

Application

Essays

A Jumble of Thoughts on Web 2.0

ITP

Classes

from http://pgse.cis.drexel.edu/pgsit/index.html

Core

Object-Oriented System Analysis and Design
Information Ethics
Database Design and Management
Interaction Design
Project Management
Networking and Distributed Computing
System Development

Electives

Advanced Networking and Distributed Computing
Digital Media
Advanced Software Development
Developing Data-Intensive Systems for the World Wide Web
Developing Interactive Systems
Linux System Administration
Developing Interactive, Animated Web Graphics
Managing Semi-structured Data: XML and Related Technologies
Information and Society: Security, Privacy, Access and Freedom

What I Learned/Review

Gov School was a great experience. The classes were passable; there were some that I liked and others which I did not. Some of the teachers were good, while others were not. "But that's how it is in college," I was told. So it was good experience.

Living in Myers Hall was lots of fun. You could just keep your door open and someone would stop by wanting to talk or go somewhere. The rules were very onerous, for example, we could only travel outside Myers Hall with a buddy, and then only in a small specified area, and only from 4-7PM. There were a lot of activities that they made us attend. I liked some of them like Dorney Park, but not others like the Phillies Game. Perhaps I had approached them with the wrong aptitude, perhaps I did not like being forced to attend.

Still I met a lot