Want to learn advanced coding or how to manage your credit? Next year, Pinewood is offering two new courses to help students do just that.
AP Computer Science A will be taught by computer science teacher Christine Tran, and business and French teacher Stéphanie Gervais will teach Personal Finance.
“These courses prepare students with professional skills,” Head of Upper Campus Eve Kulbieda said. “It’s a signature part of what Pinewood does.”
Tran said that the AP Computer Science class will go beyond the College Board curriculum and will include a multi-week project where students work on different components of a coding problem and learn to collaborate, similar to how software development teams work in the real world. Tran said that she hopes this course will serve as a stepping stone for the future of the computer science department.
“I hope to further expand our offerings by adding more design and engineering courses, giving students even more opportunities to develop their technical and problem-solving skills,” Tran said.
Another way Pinewood is preparing students for the real world is by offering a Personal Finance course in order to promote financial literacy. After polling students in her Business and Tech class, Gervais said that students were excited about the possibility of more course offerings in business and finance.
“Most of the students that joined Business and Tech liked how they learned about the real world,” Gervais said. “So that’s why I felt like Personal Finance would make sense.”
In the class, students will learn a diverse range of topics about financial decisions, including about credit cards and comparing different job opportunities and housing. Gervais plans to integrate artificial intelligence into her course to aid students with a simulation project where students manage their finances in a virtual world.
Gervais wants students to know about their finances so that they don’t have to learn everything themselves.
“I came to the U.S. not that long ago, and all of this was brand new to me,” Gervais said. “I failed to learn about the financial system, and I just want to make sure that our students start life with the right information so that they can thrive.”
As Pinewood introduces these new courses, Kulbieda and the faculty remain committed to adapting the curriculum to meet students’ needs and help achieve future career success.
“We’re trying to keep up with the way the world is changing,” Kulbieda said. “We want to get ahead of where we think the world will be when students graduate.”
