20 Jul 2020 State recognition: Two 501 educators among finalists
Two Central Arkansas teachers were among five state finalists for the 2020 Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year selected by the Arkansas Department of Education.
501 finalists Brenda Qualls (Bryant Public Schools) and Kimberly Raup (Conway Public Schools) were joined by John Mark Russell (Bentonville School District), Lauren Taylor (Dardanelle Public Schools) and Sean Gray (Marion School District). Gray was recently named the state winner.
“In this second year of the program, our team reviewed many quality applications,” said Anthony Owen, state director of Computer Science Education, in a press release. “The team unanimously agreed that these five educators demonstrate both a long-term and ongoing commitment to, passion for and impact on computer science education in Arkansas and the nation. These educators have earned and deserve this recognition.”
Each finalist receives a $2,500 award from the Arkansas Department of Education’s Office of Computer Science. The winner receives an additional $12,500 award.
KIMBERLY RAUP
Texarkana, Texas-born Kimberly Raup has a reputation as one of the most innovative computer science teachers in Arkansas. But while many of her colleagues found their calling, in Raup’s case, her calling kept finding her.
“I took a class in high school for computer science in the early 1990s. It was fun, but I didn’t find it that impactful,” she said. “Then, as I went to college and plans fell through with what I thought I wanted to do, I found myself taking more and more computer classes, and the more computer classes I took, the more I really enjoyed them.”
After graduating from the University of Central Arkansas and seeing the job market didn’t offer anything too appealing, she went back to UCA and earned her teaching degree in business. Once again, computer science was on the periphery as an elective course, but she never saw herself teaching the subject.
“I found a position that was opening up in Conway, and it was for teaching business and programming, which is what Arkansas did at that time. To teach programming, you were a business teacher,” she said. “I started teaching it and wasn’t very good the first couple years, but I learned along with the kids, and I really started enjoying it.”
Since those first baby steps, Raup has found her stride, teaching computer science, programming and game design at basic and advanced levels to Conway High School students. She’s also launched two robotics programs at the school.
Next year, she’ll introduce an independent study program where students will design and develop their own computer science projects to fit their field of interest. She’s also hoping to introduce cyber security classes in the near future.
Over 14 years at CHS, Raup’s innovative curriculum and engaged teaching style have earned her a number of accolades, but the things she values most don’t hang on the wall.
“I’ve had female interest and I’ve had students of color interested in my programs, and I’m seeing it more and more in the classroom,” she said. “Over the years, I’ve seen an increase of about 12 percent, if not a little bit more, in my female population and in my students of color population as well.
“Last year, I had one class that was almost half female versus male. Usually I have one or two females in each class. So, to have a class where half of them were female was just amazing! I was excited about that.”
BRENDA QUALLS
Over a 14-year high school teaching career — the first six at Benton and the last eight at Bryant — Brenda Qualls has built computer science programs very nearly from the ground up, educating and inspiring hundreds of students along the way with her dynamic teaching style.
Qualls grew up in Bryant, graduating from Bryant High School where she met the second great love of her life (the first being her husband Ronnie, cyber security manager for FIS). “My senior year of high school in 1985, they offered a basic coding class. I fell in love with it,” she said. “I wrote my first inventory program and knew this is the way I wanted to go. I was one of very few girls way back in the 1980s that wanted to do that. In college, I was pretty much the only girl in my classes.”
Qualls earned a degree in computer science information systems from UA Little Rock before landing in the corporate world in programming jobs for Arkansas Farm Bureau and Alltel. When she decided to make a career change into teaching, she hoped she would have a similar impact on her students, particularly girls.
“[Computer science] is still more dominated by boys, so any opportunity I have to take girls on a field trip to women’s conferences in IT or to get them to camps in the summer, I try to do that,” she said. “This year, I had a girl win an award from the National Center for Women in Technology. She won the Technology Aspirations Award because she’d taken so many classes and shown so much interest in technology and computer science.”
All of the classes Qualls teaches are elective, so she works hard to make them appealing as well as educational. She takes students to multiple programming competitions, holding special gamer events to raise money to do so. Her creativity and drive have earned her two consecutive Computer Science Educator of the Year finalist designations, as well as the admiration of her students.
“At Bryant High School, seniors pick one teacher out of their whole 12 years and present them a Life Impact Award. I actually got two of those last year, one from a female student and one from a male student,” she said. “If I have one kid come up to me at the end and say, ‘I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but now I know I want to be a computer programmer,’ then that makes my whole year.”
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