18
March 19, 2019 | The Valley Catholic
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
Focus on Community at LancerHacks
Enhancing and strengthening the
community was the big idea at Lancer-
Hacks, the recent hackathon organized
by the Saint Francis programming club,
sfhacks. From innovating on projects
that solve social problems to earning
points for meeting new people, the
hackathon was the perfect space to
think creatively about social causes.
The 12-hour event, in which students
worked in teams to create a project using
computer programming, was intention-
ally designed with the school’s Holy
Cross theme in mind — celebrating
family and cultivating relationships. As
such, participants were encouraged to
venture beyond their comfort zones by
attending a speaker session or engaging
with other students.
“The idea is that by leveraging the
power of technology, we have the abil-
ity to make the world a better place and
to benefi t our community,” says junior
Aishani Aatresh, the lead director of
the event.
The hackathon was open to students
in grades 8-12, and they came from
45 Bay Area schools. About half the
participants were new to coding and
hackathons. Some of the projects that
emerged included an app that identi-
fi es obstacles for the blind and a virtual
assistant for students that keeps their
search information private.
“We liked that the emphasis was less
on business models and making money
but rather making a social impact and
helping the community.” says Adam
Lee, a Saint Francis senior.
He and Saint Francis teammates
Patrick Xu and Deepankar Joshi wanted
to inspire fellow teens, and so they cre-
ated “Apptivism,” a website and an app
designed to connect youth volunteers to
meaningful service opportunities near
them. Another Saint Francis participant
was sophomore Srihari Nanniyur, who
developed “Solidarity,” which aims to
promote the integration of refugees in
the workplace. This project was named
“Best Community Hack,” but for Sri-
hari, much like others recognized at the
Saint Francis seniors Shivam Singhal, Ro-
han Athalye and Carolyn Chen collaborate
on a community-minded project at Lancer-
Hacks, a student-organized hackathon.
event (the trio behind “Apptivism” won
third place), the spirit of LancerHacks
was more about the opportunity to learn
and less about winning.
“What matters is making some-
thing,” Srihari says.
In addition to scheduled fun ac-
tivities that give participants a break,
there were also speakers – business
executives, entrepreneurs and engineers
– who off ered their perspectives on the
many ways we encounter computer
science.
“When you’re starting out, it’s hard
to see how what you’re learning ap-
plies to things you use every day, and
the speakers helped make it clearer,”
said junior Rithik Jain, tech director of
LancerHacks.
Students make time for hackathons
to meet industry experts, build new
skills and devote time to creating some-
thing cool. Whether technology is used
to promote consumer privacy or to help
minority groups, these students have
been inspired to make an impact on the
community, one line of code at a time.
“The part that I like the most about
computer science is how interdisci-
plinary its applications are and how
powerful it is as a tool to facilitate
other things,” says Aishani. “It opens
up doors. It’s cool to have the tiniest
window into how technology works and
think about what we can do to continue
the idea of progress and make life better
for people.”
Saint Nicholas Fifth Graders Make Blankets for Project Linus
In February, Saint Nicholas School’s
fifth Grade class made blankets to
donate to Project Linus, an organiza-
tion that supplies blankets to children
in need; seriously ill or traumatized
in some way. Each student tied fringe
knots along the sides of several blankets,
while saying a prayer as they tied each
knot. “I am happy I am making blankets
to keep kids warm and comfortable,”
one fi fth grader said after prayer. In
order to make the blankets, each student
contributed $2.50 over the course of fi ve
months to cover the fabric cost.
After nearly 10 blankets were made
of all diff erent sizes and patterns, the
blankets were then given to local chil-
dren at CASA, CPS, Ronald McDonald
House, Social Services Centers, Family
Shelters, and local hospitals, including
EL Camino, Kaiser, Good Samaritan,
and O’Connor. Saint Nicholas is ex-
tremely proud of our fi fth grade class
for inspiring us to help others through
prayer and comfort. Through their
contribution and power of prayer, other
classes are now encouraged to contrib-
ute to Project Linus!