9th grader Miranda Bance can often be seen raising her hand when a teacher asks for help with their computer, or fixing a bug or virus on a classmate’s computer. She was interested in computers long before she enrolled in the new Computer Science classes at school.

“I’ve been into computers since I was young-ish, probably because I had a computer and a lot of free time” Bance said.

Like many students, Bance had restrictions on how much she could use her computer and the applications that were available. She is and was skilled at getting around restrictions and viruses.

“One of the things I figured out while fooling around was that I had parental restrictions. I found this out one night as I was playing Minecraft while in a Skype call with some friends and I suddenly got locked out at 10  pm,” she said.

She was still able to hear her friends on the call and in the game but the restrictions frustrated her and forced her to find another way to still use her computer. Bance was eventually able to get around the restrictions after browsing the Internet for tips.

“There’s not really any specific reason I got into it; I just had too much free time. I think there could definitely be more CS classes at SPA,” she continued.

As a 9th grader, she is able to chose from the full list of Computer Science classes at SPA. With the addition of new robotics and Computer Science teacher, Dr. Kate Lockwood, there have been at least four tech-related classes added to course requests and they’ve all been filled.

Bance said gender wasn’t necessarily an obstacle in finding her path in CS, partially because she got herself into it and she knew she was already interested at such a young age.

“My only major obstacle [in the CS field] was and is being a child, and one who doesn’t have the money needed to purchase computer parts,” Bance said.

For those like Bance who are interested in CS classes, course lists will be coming out in the 4th quarter, and it’s expected that there will be an increase in CS options.