Leading the Way in Education
An interview with Annie Li — a teen teacher and treasurer of AiGoLearning:
Annie Li is a rising junior who has taken on the dual responsibilities of Head of Marketing and Treasurer at AiGoLearning, on top of her work teaching younger students Python. In this interview, which was conducted over online correspondence, Annie discusses her experiences and motivations at the organization.
Please introduce yourself: how would you describe yourself, and what are your responsibilities at AiGoLearning?
I would probably describe myself as a people person. I love the way that AiGoLearning lets me meet new people from all over the country who will ultimately have the same goal as me, making AiGoLearning better, with the additional connection of coding.
What are some of your personal interests, and did any of them lead you to get involved in AiGoLearning? If so, how?
I go to a school where we can choose an “academy” which you will dedicate your 4 years to, and I chose the “computer science” academy. Because of this, I have had massive exposure to computer science in the past couple of years and that, in tandem with my desire to teach children, led to my joining AiGoLearning. Originally, I had joined purely to teach, but because of experience that I had with marketing in another nonprofit, I had felt drawn to the marketing team within AiGoLearning. One of the main things that caught my attention was how much potential there was, especially since when I went to search for any social media for AiGoLearning and couldn’t find any! So, we’ve come far.
Has your experiences working for AiGoLearning helped you in other pursuits, academic or otherwise?
My experience with AiGoLearning has helped a lot. I now understand the amount of work it takes to hold a whole event, such as a hackathon. Logistics was something I never really considered to be a big task until this. In addition, I believe this gives me a good approximation of how it is like to start your own business or nonprofit. As a teacher, I also believe I understand Python a lot more than when I first learned it myself. As the AiGoLearning website says, “when one teaches, two learn”.
What about AiGoLearning’s mission is appealing to you?
AiGoLearning’s mission to spread coding to everyone and to allow high school and college students to not just tutor, but teach classes is very appealing to me. As someone who has been a student teacher for about a year, I not only find it intriguing to have this experience, but it has also made me feel some empathy towards my own teachers (it really is hard to get students to participate, especially in an online environment!)
How do you think AiGoLearning will contribute to your future goals?
As of right now, I’m not quite sure how AiGoLearning will fit into my future goals. It has given me the experience I desired when first entering this internship, that of working with a startup, and teaching experience. I hope to use these experiences I’ve gained, like communication and management skills, to make my way to bigger and better things!
If you’re interested in becoming a student or teacher for AiGoLearning, head over to https://aigolearning.org/ for more detailed course descriptions and registration for all summer programs, teaching opportunities, and membership positions.
