Congratulations to senior Jessica Thoelke, who received a $5,000 scholarship for higher education from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri. The honor was given to recognize Jessica for her leadership abilities and for recently completing her Girl Scouts Gold Award project.
The Gold Award is bestowed after the recipient has undergone a rigorous, in-depth project. Jessica’s project consisted of creating and facilitating a coding program for Ladue Middle School students. At the beginning of the year, Jessica recognized a lack of opportunities for young students to learn coding. She approached administrators and worked with teachers to structure an after-school Code Red coding program. Now, 30 to 40 students attend the sessions to learn the basics of coding and explore the possibilities.
The best part of her experience was watching the students grasp the concepts and then put them into practice, Jessica told the Girl Scouts.
Jessica will attend Washington University in the fall to study engineering. She hopes to become an aerospace engineer.