[TOS] gifted high school student

[Chris Tyler]

On Wed, 2010-12-22 at 10:43 -0800, Robert Arkiletian wrote:
> Hi, I'm a high school teacher. I teach Python and C/C++ in a Linux
> DRBL environment.  One of my senior students is a very accomplished
> programmer.  Some of the self directed projects he has accomplished
> are a tiling window manager for X, port knocker, audio player (all in
> C). He is also working towards getting his RHCE certificate before he
> graduates. Wondering which *Canadian* universities would be a good fit
> for such a student?
> 
> Thanks

Hi Robert,

I'd agree with David and Matt that Waterloo (top school) and UBC (local
to you) are good options for a Computer Science program in Canada. These
are traditional CS programs with a strong emphasis on math and theory.

As an alternative, here at Seneca we offer a solid undergrad program in
Software Development (BSD). This has a different emphasis than CS
programs -- less theory and more practical software development, in
multiple languages, on multiple platforms, and with strong open source
participation opportunities.

I'd also agree with David Nally that there's nothing to keep your
student from directly jumping into one or more open source communities
and going as deep as he wants -- Fedora, Mozilla, and other projects are
very welcoming to new contributors (and Fedora is one of the main
upstreams for RHEL, which ties into your students' interest in obtaining
his RHCE).

(And THANK YOU for teaching HS students Python, C, and C++ and for
exposing them to open source! I wish there were many more high school
teachers offering their students those opportunities).

--
Chris Tyler
Seneca College
Center for Development of Open Technology