Benefits of Exposing K-12 Students to Computer Science through Summer Camp Programs

In this paper we provide an overview of the CS@SC Summer Camps, which is a week-long exposure program to teach K-12 students about computer science. Students attend the program on campus at the University of Southern California, experiencing life as a college student while learning about a valuable field that is currently in high demand. The camps have a proven record of drawing interest from groups that are under-represented in computer science: girls (over 40% attended), minorities (over 70% attended), and low income families (over 80% of attendees with an annual family income less than $40k). Although a majority of the attendees expressed interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields prior to attending camp, the camps further increased interest by over 12%. We conclude that exposure programs such as CS@SC serve an important purpose, that of increasing the diversity and number of students pursuing education and careers in STEM fields.