Computer Science & Innovation Major

Champlain offers many Core travel courses, and I was fortunate enough to take two. My second year, I took an Aesthetic Expressions course in the fall semester. We learned about the artistic culture in Zanzibar. Then, over winter break, we spent two weeks in Zanzibar, which was amazing. We met with three schools on the island of Pemba, which inspired my work with Techdren. I took the second class in the series during the spring semester, where we debriefed the trip and learned more about the religious and secular aspects of the culture.


My third year, I took a Core class with a travel component to India. We went for a week and saw the Taj Mahal and the Lotus temple. It was a really great experience, and we were able to see how different religions interacted together.

Techdren, Technology for Children, is officially a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and I'm the CEO and co-founder. We first started on a Core travel course, and since then we've grown into a full nonprofit and run two successful trips delivering technology to students and primary schools on the Island of Pemba. We focus on providing technology for children with the goal of furthering education and technology literacy, as well as empowering girls and women.

When I first came to college as a Computer Networking & Digital Forensics student, I was really excited about everything I was learning in class, but I was missing computer programming. When I talked to employers about what kind of opportunities they had, they said how great digital forensics is, but they also needed someone with a programming background. Since then, Champlain has added programming classes to the Digital Forensics major, but I decided I was going to try some on my own before they did. I realized I really enjoyed my computer science classes, so I added my second major of Computer Science & Innovation. Even with a double major, I'm able to graduate in four years, which is amazing.