Google reps, including South High grad, teach Pueblo D60 high schoolers about coding

James Bartolo, The Pueblo Chieftain
·2 min read
Christian Michael speaks to a group of Pueblo Centennial High School students as part of the district's Hour of Code event on Thursday. Michael is Google Cloud's North American Public Sector Training Lead.
Christian Michael speaks to a group of Pueblo Centennial High School students as part of the district's Hour of Code event on Thursday. Michael is Google Cloud's North American Public Sector Training Lead.

Christian Michael did not think college was an option during his days at Pueblo South High School — now he's Google Cloud's North American public sector training lead.

The 1997 graduate was among 10 Google employees to visit Pueblo School District 60 high schools during the district's participation in an Hour of Code event Thursday. Hour of Code is a global event meant to encourage computer programming activities for coders of all ages and experience levels.

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"Students are not only lucky to have the technology in their hand in terms of the hardware, but also access to the internet where they can leverage that for studying, for planning their career path and for training ... When they want to learn more, they can just go and watch a YouTube video," Michael said.

Michael graduated from South a year before Google was founded. His high school interests were music, drama and debate. He ended up earning his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Northern Colorado. Gaining experience in business and education, he wound up in the world of education technology.

"I knew that I had a passion for working with people, to help skill people and to help train people," Michael said. "That ultimately led to ... getting interested in technology and merging those two things, technology and training folks."

Google employees Lukas Gnirke, left, and Jack Gelinas give a presentation to a group of Pueblo Centennial High School students as part of the district's Hour of Code event on Thursday.
Google employees Lukas Gnirke, left, and Jack Gelinas give a presentation to a group of Pueblo Centennial High School students as part of the district's Hour of Code event on Thursday.

He and his fellow Googlers led 38 sessions across Pueblo D60 between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Thursday. Sessions were presented to a wide range of students including those in criminal justice, JROTC, freshman seminar, biology, journalism and culinary arts classes.

The professionals spoke to students about their experiences working at Google, led activities to teach computer science fundamentals and even discussed advanced concepts like machine learning.

"Coding is a regimented way to tell the computer what to do ... the end result is to make it do something, whether it's moving a robotic arm or sending requests to a server," said George Engelbrecht, a Google software engineer.

While the visits were reserved for high schoolers, younger students participated in coding activities like building binary code bracelets and playing coding-focused computer games.

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"We have activities from beginner all the way to advanced. ... We try to reach every kid where they are and where their interest levels are," said Paula Herraez, 21st century skills coach at Pueblo D60.

Pueblo D60 has participated in Hour of Code for the past eight years. Last year, Michael paid a virtual visit to students at his former middle school, Pueblo Academy of Arts. This year was the first time Google employees visited Pueblo D60 in person during Hour of Code.

Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached by email at JBartolo@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo schools celebrate Computer Science Week with Hour of Code event