Ethan Berry is a 17-year-old junior at Middle Creek High School. He recently won 1st place in Carnegie Mellon Creative Task, Fall 2021. Through all his hard work and dedication, he was able to learn more about programming and improve his skills until he became fluent enough to create his own game and win this competition.
It all started when Ethan was 15-years-old, a sophomore in high school. He first started coding at 13 but didn’t take his first programming class until 15. “I started with taking Intro to Computer Science,” he says. “I had a lot of fun there, so the natural thing to do was to take AP Computer science.” This drive and passion for programming inspired him to start doing projects outside of class. As he advanced into higher and better programming classes provided by Middle Creek, his personal projects started to improve and become more intricate
When his teacher, Mr. Warren, first informed his class of the competition, he encouraged some to submit their own personal projects. There could only be a few submissions per class, and Ethan was chosen to be one. “The version I entered in the competition only took about a month, but the current version is much more refined and updated.” Ethan didn’t enter this competition looking to win or succeed; rather, his goal was simply to show his 2D Mario Kart game to others and see what they thought of it. After all, he hadn’t made the project especially for the competition. “I had started making it beforehand,” he describes. He couldn’t care less about his ranking, though he was glad to see the judges were impressed with his work and awarded him first place.
This love for programming has allowed Ethan to plot out his future. He plans to attend his dream school, North Carolina State University, where he can “study engineering, environmental tech, or computer science.” If it weren’t for his willingness and passion, he wouldn’t have been able to give himself these opportunities. Without his hard work, going to his dream school might have been out of reach, but because of his smart choices and dedication, his dream school is right at his fingertips. All he needs to do is grasp it and hold on tight.
Ethan shows that dedication to anything can bring improvement. Even if you’re not good at the start, if you have the drive and motivation to practice, you can increasingly grow and improve, accomplish goals, and build your future. Always strive to be number one.