Summer Interns at the GreenHouse
Learning how to embed images in a web page.
This summer the GreenHouse Center, a non-profit community outreach in South Natomas, asked if GLAD Technology could partner with them in hosting a high school summer internship program. Grant funds had been given towards providing high school students opportunities to work in various professional fields, developing hands-on job skills and learning about careers they might be interested in pursuing. While there were several options for students to choose from, I took the lead with the web development internship.
Designing a website layout with hand-drawn wireframes.
More than just learning development skills for personal growth, we were actually designing and creating an actual series of pages for the GreenHouse website. With a real-world project due by the end of our 5-week program, we moved at fast pace through the content:
Learning the fundamentals of HTML and CSS
Requesting information and proposals from GreenHouse leaders and administrators
Using a “wireframing” design process to decide how the pages would be laid out
Working in development teams to build out the pages
Submitting revisions for review and edits
Making our design a reality: turning an image into a working web page.
It was incredible to see the enthusiasm and work these students put in, especially in such a short amount of time. At one point, towards the end of the program, I paused in my lecture and pointed to the code on the screen:
“Look at all of this! Just a few weeks ago, none of you had any knowledge of web development, and now we have hundreds of lines of working code and a beautiful website to show for it. All of you should be so proud of your work!”
And they were. Taking a step back to see how far they had come, they had big smiles on their faces and eyes full of pride and excitement. They knew what they had accomplished, and it was even better than they had imagined.
