Just a decade ago, the average WHS student wasn’t creating games for phones or much less sharing calculator programs. But today, some students who are passionate about computer programming are doing just that, thanks to the new Computer Club.
The Computer Club, organized this year, pairs “Computer Science” savvy students with novice students to teach computer programming and to discuss recent developments in computer science, according to whs.westfieldnjk12.org. According to Club Advisor Mr. Martin Maruschak, students will be “learning more about how to program in languages other than those they were already familiar with in a communal environment.”
The Computer Club will be making video games using the video gaming making engine Unity, according to junior student moderator Jonathan Gorczyca. He added that the club will be making games for various platforms, including: Mac, and Android.Computer Club members use the hour-long session to get help on personal projects when they are not working on club projects.
Mr. Maruschak added that students can, “bring laptops in so that they can work on platforms that are not available here at the high school”Junior club member Max Kaiser said: “A lot of times people are working on something different than other people, but there’s this feeling of collaboration… You may not know [some skill], but somebody else probably knows it”
John Gorczyca said he founded the Computer Club with Kaiser because they couldn’t find an extracurricular outlet for computer programming in WHS. Gorczyca said that learning computer programming as a club would be meaningful because “you were more motivated into learning because all your friends were doing it”
Within the club, Kaiser added, “There’s a cool form of independence”.The Computer Club meets after school every Thursday in room 382.