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Computer science teacher focuses on teaching kids to program

"It really changed my view of what I want to do in life," said junior Brooke Richardson.

MCCALL, Idaho — Computer science is a booming industry, and one high school teacher in McCall is showing his students the equation for success.

At McCall-Donnelly high school the focus in AP Computer Science is on programming.

Students decide what projects they want to tackle during the multi-year course.

Teacher Bill Borg says that after 20 plus years of developing software, he was excited to teach what he knows to eager learners.

"I've had kids take this course as many as three years," he said. "Kids are really tech-savvy, they know the hand motions, they're power users with their phones and gadgets but what they don't get with what we do as developers is we write those applications, and we write the Facebooks of the world, we write the spreadsheets, we write the games that they play."

It's lighting a path for these teenagers.

"It really changed my view of what I want to do in life," said junior Brooke Richardson. 

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This is her second year taking AP Computer Science.

"I always liked computers and I just thought it would be a fun class and I didn't really know I was this interested in it until I took this class last year," she said.

She says Mr. Borg is a big part of it.

It's obvious he loves seeing the transformation in students like Richardson.

Borg says the point of signing up to be in this classroom is to find out if the computer science field is for you.

Because, of course, it's not for everyone...

 "This is a good place for them to figure out 'hey is this my thing,' or maybe it's not," Borg said. "High school is a great time to figure that out."

Richardson hopes to get into website or video game security after college.

Borg says there's a lot of options when it comes to computer science fields.

"There are writers, programmers, artists, storytellers, editors, and all those things, we can use that as a way to introduce kids and say whether you're a programmer or not that's ok, this field is massive" he said. "I tell the kids no matter how you want to get involved it's a job you can love, it's an awesome gig, and by the way it's a great way to make a living for these kids."

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