Last Day of Camp!

Good Afternoon Lovely Ladies!

This morning we had some of our girls come in to get the projects ready.  So for some of us, our day started a little early.  The girls worked on their projects and put on their finishing touches.  They are looking so good!  We can't wait to see the finished products. As the morning progressed, we started to see all of the lovely faces of the girls.



As soon as all of the girls got here, they all took their Before & After surveys.  We all took pictures and ate some delicious deli sandwiches.  And through all the craziness we all got ready for presentations.  We are so excited for you ladies to present the projects you've been working so hard on over the past three weeks.  We know you all will rock presentations and show off your smarts on programming.


We are gonna miss y'all so much, and we are so proud of what you ladies have accomplished!  We can't wait to see all of your lovely faces next year!!!

Before and After Survey


Blog Prompt: What was the best thing about the YWiC camp, and what is something new you learned from camp?

Hot Dogs, Pasta, and Touch Ups

Happy National Chili Dog Day!!

Today started with amazing pasta. Today, we had cheddar broccoli, penne in red sauce, and Alfredo. They were all delicious.  As per usual, we all stuffed our faces, and gorged ourselves on bread. 

Once we had all finished eating, the girls went into the lab to work on their projects. Right before they started working, though, Elena showed them an amazing TED talk about perfection and teaching girls to be brave. The girls loved it, and some even applauded when the video was over.

It was after the video that the girls really got to work on their projects. Since they mock presented yesterday, the girls have seen what needs to be finished and what could be improved. The instructors and camp assistants walked around helping the girls with their projects in an effort to get them ready for tomorrow. We're all excited about it!

About half way through some of the girls need a break, so we took them outside to play concentration. It ended in a lot of laughter. We headed back inside to finish out the day. All of the girls had to finish their 10 CS Concepts paper. Everyone is looking presentation ready!

End of Day Survey

Blog Prompt: What has been your favorite part of the YWiC camp so far?

Remember to wear your shirts tomorrow!!!

Happy Hobby Day!

Happy Hump Day Ladies!

The attire for today was based off of the girls hobbies. Most of them wore outfits based on the sports or clubs they are in; whether it be soccer, gymnastics, or Girl Scouts y'all looked amazing. 

This afternoon began with BBQ and cornbread. Following lunch, the girls jumped right into their projects. All of which are looking presentation ready! It's amazing to see how far they have all come since the first day. We can't wait to see everyone's final product!

After some trial and error, we had a video call with Natalie Rodriguez! She is teaching computer science to girls at the American Museum of Natural History and working on the Oculus Rift for a tree of life. It makes an augmented reality for the museum to enhance a person's view of the museum. She even has access at night to look around the museum! We also talked to her about being in Technolochicas and transitioning from Mexico to Texas to New York. She took us on a tour of her work space, where we saw the planetarium, animal displays, and an anthropology exhibit.

Once we ended the call it was time for mock presentations. Everyone is going to blow their parents away by how amazing everything is. Always remember to stay confident, project, and enunciate!

Don't forget tomorrow is Throwback Thursday! Dress from your favorite decade. We hope y'all stay for the movie and pizza tonight. We'll be watching Inside Out.

End of Day Survey

Blog Prompt: Imagine you have been sucked into a video game or app. Which video game or app would it be? Describe your day inside the game.

Cybersecurity is your Friend

Good afternoon ladies! Lunch was delicious Chinese food with gigantic egg rolls!

With great power comes great responsibility

Today started out with an eye-opening video about all of the things hackers can find out about a person on the internet. It ranged from tattoos to bank account numbers. After the video finished Elena went over a presentation about network security and how someone can keep their information private. Once Elena finished her presentation she had the girls go to the Nova Labs website so that they could work through the cybersecurity lab. In the lab the girls are a part of a company that needs network security. Players have to go through several levels to make sure that they have the best network security that they could get. The girls worked through it for about an hour and a half.

When most of the girls had finished, they reviewed some of the things that they learned from the lab as well as what they can do to protect themselves online. Then the girls continued working on their projects. They look so great!

End of Day Survey

Blog Prompt: Tell us a joke (or pun), Whoever can get us to laugh the most gets their favorite candy, so be sure to write that down too!

Starting our last week at YWiC!

It's a Crazy Day!!

Happy Monday girls! Our theme today is crazy hair and socks. After a lunch of Mexican food, we went straight to working on independent projects. The EV3 robots, Scratch programs and Lilypad projects are all coming along very nicely and we can't wait to see the finished results! 

This Week's Schedule:

Tuesday: Concert day (wear a concert or favorite artist t-shirt!)

Wednesday: Hobby Day (wear what you wear when you're doing your favorite hobby, eg. Gymnastics!) Also, from 4 to 6 we're watching Inside Out with Pizza!

Thursday: Throwback Day (dress up from your favorite decades, eg. 60s, 70s, 80s)

End of Day Survey Blog Prompt: What is the craziest thing you've ever done at a party?

Last Day for Our New Girls! :(

We're so happy and so sad today because our new campers are leaving us! We'll miss you guys so much!! These two weeks seem to have just flown by and we had so much fun with you girls!We have watched you grow and learn in computer science and gotten to know your awesome personalities. We really, really, really hope you come back next year so we can see you again!! Your projects look totally amazing, and we can't wait for you to present them!

Final Survey

Aspire Las Cruces Survey

Blog Prompt: What was the best thing about the YWiC camp, and do you want to come again next year?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Afternoon Girls!

This afternoon began with lunch from Corner Deli. Then they dove straight into their projects, which are coming along quite nicely. Whether they are working on an EV3, animation, game, or LED's, they have all made huge advancements this week. 

After a nice afternoon of work we took a field trip to Barnes & Noble and Starbucks. The girls appreciated the cold drinks after walking through the heat. We headed back, only to discovery TCBY was closed. So, we concluded the afternoon working and even finishing some projects. 

Have a good weekend girls!!!

End of Day Survey

Blog Prompt: Summarize your week using only one syllable words. 

One Day More!

Good morning ladies! There's only one more day left of camp  =(  We'll miss you a bunch!



The morning started with a CoverGirl video that promoted the message "Girls can." After the video the girls went outside and were divided into three groups for the Human Knot activity.

There were a few stops throughout, but for the most part the girls were able to untangle themselves. Two groups made two circles accidentally, which made it more difficult for them to get untangled.  After all three groups got untangled, the girls went back inside to finish up their projects. They signed up for which projects they wanted to present tomorrow.


The morning was devoted entirely to open build so that the girls could finish and perfect their projects. They look so awesome!

End of Day Survey

Blog Prompt: If you were a flavor of ice cream, what flavor would you be and why?


____________________________________________________________________________

Good Afternoon, Alum!!

Today started with delicious Italian food from Pastaggio's. It was so good! We all gorged ourselves on the wonderful food. The Chedder Broccoli Penne was so amazing.

Once we managed to wake up from our food comas, the girls went into the lab and got to work on their independent projects. There are so many awesome things the girls are doing, and it's exciting to help them with their projects.

A little more than halfway through the afternoon, we took the girls out into the atrium to do the Human Knot game. Since there are less girls in the Alum camp than the new camp, we had the the girls gather in one huge circle. They were pretty tangled, but they took less time than the morning group, and they had twice the amount of the average group. It was pretty interesting.


After they untangled themselves, some of the girls wanted to try the Back-to-Back challenge. Two girls had to sit down, back-to-back, link arms, and try to stand up. A couple of the girls did it as fast or faster than Ari and I were able to. It was pretty great.

The girls went back inside after the activities to continue to work on their projects.



TOMORROW IS FUTURE YOU DAY!!!

Blog Prompt: If you were a flavor of ice cream, what flavor would you be and why? Waffle Cone, Sugar Cone, or Cup?

Day 9 Alum Survey

Happy National Moon Day!

Good Morning, Ladies!!!!!

Today is National Vanilla Milkshake Day!

This morning we started off with an inspirational video for the girls. It was really funny and great! Then we took the girls outside to play a game of Never Have I Ever. It was interesting to see all of the different things that they had and had not done. 

Next we went back inside and continued to work with Arduino. Elena walked the girls through programming their four buttons so that each of the buttons played a different note. Then Elena played a song by pressing buttons on the Uno board and the girls had to guess which song it was. The girls got to play those songs on their own boards with the four notes they had. Then we gave the girls time to create their own songs. 

After working with Arduino, we had a Q and A session with the instructors. They answered questions that the girls put on the end of day survey. 

Next was Scratch with Angela! The girls finished making the game that Angela taught them yesterday so today we began with review so that the girls can elaborate on their own games in Scratch. 



Tomorrow is Fictional Character Day!! Dress up!!

Blog Prompt: What is your favorite milkshake flavor/dessert??







_________________________________________________________________________________


Good Afternoon, Lovely Ladies!

Today is National Moon Day!

After our lunch, we jumped right into blender.  The girls worked really hard at staying caught up  with Marissa.  The projects they created look awesome, we are so proud of you all!

After Blender the girls went into the Atrium to do an activity called Never Have I Ever.  It was a fun game and we got to know a little more about each other.  We came in after the activity and each girl started working on their open build projects.  The projects are really coming along, you girls are so creative!

                     All of the girls are working on a variety of projects like LilyPad, Arduino Uno, Lego robotics, and much more.  Everyone is working so diligently 


We spent the remainder of the day working on main projects and some of the other side projects.  Everything is looking so great, keep it going ladies!


Tomorrow is Fictional Character Day!! Dress up!!


AND Friday is Be Future You Day!  So dress up as an astronaut or a scientist, do you!


Blog Prompt: If you were able to spend the day on the moon, who would you take with you and what would you do?

Day 8 Alumni Survey

TEArific Party

Good Morning Cute-Teas!

This morning the girls started out getting their emails ready for Arduino. We then headed outside to go Through the Rabbit Hole. This game consisted of having the girls split into two groups and stand in a line. They had to step through a Hula-Hoop with their hands connected. Group 2 won the first competition. All the girls go into one huge circle and tried it again, with an amazing time of 2 minutes and 1 second. The second time they had two Hula-Hoops, and were done in 2 minutes 32 seconds! 

All the girls headed inside to keep working on their Arduino's with Elena. They started programming their buzzers to do an arpeggio. The classroom sounded like a traffic jam. After completing their boards, the girls moved on to Scratch. Once on Scratch, they kept working on their fish and shark game. Angela showed them how to finish out their game in the code. All the girls created amazing lose and win screens. We were so excited to see all the finished products!

We hope to see you all at our Alice in Wonderland Party tonight!!! Don't be late!

Blog Prompt: If you could be any animal real or mythical what would you be? Why do you pick this animal?

New End of Day Survey


__________________________________________________________________________


Good afternoon ladies!

After a wonderful lunch (lots and lots of delicious Chinese food) the girls went into the room and jumped right into Blender.

When they finished with that, the girls walked to the atrium and went Through the Rabbit Hole! They had to get through a hula hoop while their arms were linked. Once the game was done the girls came back to the room and continued working on their projects during the open build time. We hope you guys can come to the Tea Party today!

End of Day Survey

Blog Prompt: If you could be any animal (real or mythical) what would you be and why?

Dapper Day!!

Happy Dapper Day!

Good Morning, girls!

Today is also National Sour Candy Day!

Pucker up!


This morning started off with amazing outfits and awesome questions. The girls came dressed to the nines and looked so professional. For the first part of camp, the YWiC instructors answered some of the questions the girls had on Friday.

After that, the girls started learning about Arduino Uno. Elena gave a wonderful presentation before walking through connecting all the wires from the breadboard to the Uno board. To make sure the girls didn't misunderstand her, Elena had Notepad open so she could write the connections large enough for all the girls to see. The girls went step-by-step to connect all the wires. All in all, the girls connected four buttons and a buzzer that acts like a speaker.

Once they finished all their wiring, we had the girls put away their Arduino Uno boards in the back so that we could have a video call with SP (Esperanza). SP is former YWiC staff and is currently working at GoDaddy in Phoenix. She explained to the girls how YWiC has helped her and how she got her job. She even gave the girls a tour of her office. The girls had many great questions for SP, and she answered all of them thoroughly.

When the video call ended, the girls moved on to Scratch. Angela asked the girls who has used Scratch before. Most of them have, which was great. She went over what Scratch is and how to use it. For some of the girls, it was a review. After that, Angela had the girls log on to the website and start new accounts. Angela then walked them through the process of creating an underwater game.

Blog Prompt: If you could live in any time period, when would you live? Where would you like to live?

End of Day Survey
_________________________________________________________________________________

Good afternoon, Alumni Ladies! We started out with plenty of awesome Mexican food. Then we did a video chat with SP, a former YWiC instructer that now works at GO Daddy. She was really informative! Then the girls worked on Blender, and they are almost done with thier snake games! So close!! After that, they started on thier independent projects of Arduino, Snap, and EV3. They are coming along very nicely.

Tomorrow is Alice in Wonderland Day! Dress up; we will! And don't forget the Evening Activity from 6 to 8!!
Wednesday is School Spirit.
THursday dress up as your favorite book character!
Friday is dress up as your future you!
Alumni survey

It's a Disney Day!

Yay, it's Friday!

It's also Disney Day, and our awesome campers came wearing lots of Mickey Mouse Ears and even a Wicked Witch hat!Instead of our morning activity, the girls chatted with Sofi, who is a past YWiC instructor on an internship. She showed us her project on proteins!

                                   

Next, we continued on our App inventor projects, which are coming along amazingly! Some are already done and they are all such creative games and quizzes. 

After that, Marissa did EV3 Robotics with the girls. They acted out some of the programs and explained them to! The car programs are looking good. 

Have a great weekend gals! See you Monday!

End of Day Survey

Blog Prompt: What is the Disney Princess that you are most like?

Next Week's Schedule: 

Monday- Dapper Day (dress up Fancy)

Tuesday- Alice in Wonderland with evening activity!

Wednesday- School Spirit (wear any school shirt)

Thursday- Dress up as your favorite Book Character



____________________________________________________________________________

Happy Disney Day!!! How we wish it wasn't so hot outside....

Today started with amazing sandwiches from the Corner Deli. After the delicious lunch, the girls came in to work on their Blender Snake Games. The girls got pretty far on their games! 

After the Blender session, we took the girls outside to play a game. It was kinda like Ships and Sailors, but way more intense. The girls were in a huge group and had to walk around. Then, one of the camp assistants would shout out a random number and a body part, and the girls would have to get into a group of that number, and they all had to touch the body part shouted out. Towards the end of the game, we had to get creative, so we started shouting out challenges for the girls to do. It was pretty epic. Isis won the game, and we gave her a cup as a prize.

Once we got back inside, the girls worked on their projects. They look so awesome! We are so excited to see what these girls can do. 

Monday is Dapper Day!!!

Tuesday is Alice in Wonderland Day!!

End of Day Survey

Blog Prompt: Which Disney character are you most like?

Introductions

We'd like for all of you to get to know the camp assistants and instructors here at YWIC a little bit more, so below we've you'll find their introductions.

Hi y'all! My name is Elena Davidson, I'm 19 years old, and I'm a sophomore here at New Mexico State University majoring in Computer Science. I enjoy teaching here at YWiC and enjoy getting to know all of the campers. I spend my free time hanging out with my friends and family, volunteering with 4-H and my church, and traveling.  

Hey campers!! I'm Angela Kearns and I'm 19 years old. I am a sophomore at New Mexico State University where I am working towards dual Bachelors of Science degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science. I LOVE teaching you guys at YWiC camps and after school programs and in my free time I also enjoy dancing, particularly ballet! :) 

My name is Marissa Carbajal, I'm 20 years old. I'm studying 3D Animation and Visual Effect here at the Creative Media Institute of NMSU. My favorite hobby is writing stories and reading. I like to watch anime, play video games, go for walks, and create new things in my spare time.  

I'm Sean Markert, a 27 year old PhD student studying astronomy at NMSU. My research involves gravitational lensing, the bending of light around massive clusters of galaxies. In my free time I enjoy practicing various martial arts, fencing, and bouldering. 

Hi, I'm John Kulpa. I'm a PhD. candidate in psychology at NMSU. I study how people determine subjective similarity. I am working on developing a better method to measure subjective similarity. I enjoy playing with my three kids, swimming, hiking, and singing 

My name is Ryan Read and I'm 27 years old.  After completing my Bachelors in Math and Education and teaching for a bit, I began my Masters in Computer Science.  When I'm not working, I'm probably mountain biking, road cycling, or fixing my bikes. 

My name is Collin Scarince. I'm a 27 year old graduate student in the Psychology Department at New Mexico State University. I study visual attention as well as how humans interact with computers and automated systems. My favorite hobby is to play guitar and take photos of the great outdoors. 

My name is Benita Hinojosa and I'm currently 17 years old. I am going into my senior year at Arrowhead Park Early College High School and in May I'll graduate with a high school diploma and an Associate's of Arts, Associate's of Science and Associate's of Public Health. Next year at NMSU I plan to go into Radiology and Sonography. My favorite hobbies include riding horseback, singing, archery, and reading a ton. 

Hey campers! My name is Tori Makk, I'm 16 years old and a senior at Arrowhead Park Early College High School. I'll graduate in 2017 with an Associate's in business, and go on to do two  more years of business marketing at NMSU. Once I receive my Bachelor's degree, I plan on attending law school to become an attorney. At YWIC, I primarily work on updating our web pages and graphic design. My favorite hobbies include writing and spending too much money on frozen yogurt. 

Hi ladies!!! :) My name is Sasha Smith and I'm 17 years old. I just graduated from Saint Mary's High School and I will be a freshman at NMSU in the fall. I enjoy music, reading, and Disney movies. I am a fan of Divergent and the Hunger Games and I am a huge fan of Olaf from Frozen (no joke, I have like three stuffed Olafs).  

My name is Abbi Jones. I am 14 and going to Las Cruces High School as a freshman this fall. I just finished 8th grade at Sierra Middle School Science Magnet. This year will be my third year in the First Robotics Competition with Project Neo, where I work on bringing STEM into the community and building 6 foot tall robots. When I am not there, I am in jazz band, orchestra, or working on EV3's.  

Hi Guys!  So, my name is Belle Trevino and I'm 18 years old.  I just graduated from Mayfield High School and will be attending New Mexico State University this fall.  I am still unsure what it is I want to study, but I definitely want to work with kids of all ages.  I enjoy drawing dinosaurs...well...everywhere (if you haven't already noticed). 

My name is Analyssa Martinez and I'm 18 years old. I just graduated from Centennial High School, and I'll be studying at NMSU in the fall. I plan to double major in Computer Science and Sociology. In my downtime, I love to write, whether it be in a journal or on an online document. 

My name is Arianna Martinez and I am 18 years old (Analyssa and I are twin sisters.) I graduated from Centennial High School this past May, and will be attending New Mexico State University in the fall. I plan on studying computer science and psychology. My favorite hobby is to cross stitch, and I love to read, solve puzzles of all kinds, and code random things in my downtime.