Sara Chipps, TCS Class of ’99, went on to earn her college degree from Penn State. Today, Sara is a software engineer at Stack Overflow, where she is the Director of Community. Additionally, she runs her own company called ‘JewelBots’where she makes STEM products for young girls to teach them about science and engineering.
Learn more from Sara’s own reflections on her experience at TCS.
What do you love most about TCS?
I loved how it was centered around academics. I also really appreciated the smallness of this school community and being able to get close to a group of people who became an integral part of my life.
Describe one of your favorite memories of TCS.
I loved my classes with Mrs. Gall! I remember it being the place where I discovered how much I loved coding. I think she’s a great teacher and if it weren’t for that class, I don’t think I would have discovered programming, and fallen love with it so much that it really changed my life.
Why do you believe it was important for you to attend TCS?
TCS was where I discovered my love for coding. It was an environment where there was both self-directed as well as teacher led learning, and this really helped me. I found that classes were generally more advanced than my peers at a public school. A point in case was Mrs. Gall’s class, where we learnt C++. I don’t know many people who learned that in high school and enjoyed it as much as I did!
How did your time at TCS impact your life?
It affected my life because it directed me to subjects such as coding and people like Mrs.Gall who guided me on what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. As a result, I am working as a software engineer and designing STEM products for young girls to inspire them in the areas of science and engineering.