Mark Godinez is the lead teacher for the Academy of IT at South Dade Senior High School in Homestead, FL, and the Miami CSTA K–16 liaison of student engagement. During the summer, he works with students in grades 3–8 in the Migrant Education Program. He received the Regional CSTA Teaching Excellence Award in 2023 and was named a 2022 National NCWIT Educator of the Year. Mark was also named the 2019 and 2020 South Florida Affiliate NCWIT Educator of the Year and the 2018 South Dade Senior High School Teacher of the Year. He was a 2020 NASEF Scholastic Fellow promoting scholastic esports and service learning. He also founded a National Computer Science Honor Society to help promote computer science in his school and community, and he recently earned a computer science K–12 teaching graduate certificate from the University of Florida.
A constant in Mark’s career has been introducing computer science to students who haven’t previously had access to tech education, and he’s passionate about making their early experiences good ones. He helped create his school’s academy of information technology and worked hard to recruit female students to participate in AP computer science courses, drawing on strategies from the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) to guide his recruitment efforts. This paid off when the school received the AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for two years running.
Mark’s work with the Migrant Education Program offers another set of opportunities to welcome students into computer science. The program serves students whose parents work in agriculture in Mark’s rural community; within it, he creates computer science programs for kids in grades 3–8, to get them excited about computer science and encourage them to take CS or engineering classes at their own schools. As a graduate of South Dade Senior High himself, Mark says, “I am very invested in our community and am dedicated to getting more students into CS pathways.”
One of Mark’s most effective strategies for creating a more equitable tech education environment has been building collaborative relationships with other educators and related organizations. As the student engagement K–16 liaison for CSTA Miami, he creates opportunities for local organizations to support CS students and teachers. For instance, he partnered with Code Art to create a girls’ coding club through the Migrant Education Program, and he maintains a strong relationship with NCWIT as well. Mark says, “My strength is leveraging partnerships and collaboration to tackle inequalities in computer science education. Through partnerships, a teacher can accomplish great things that cannot be done alone.”
It’s in this spirit of collaboration that Mark approaches his time as a CSTA Equity Fellow. “I recently received a graduate certificate in computer science K–12 teaching,” says Mark. “I remember how impactful it was to learn from fellow teachers in my cohort.” He’s excited to form similarly strong bonds with the other Equity Fellows and learn from their varied and unique experiences of teaching CS with equity in mind.
Building on his work with girls in CS and the Migrant Education Program, Mark hopes to use his time in the fellowship to find (and create) more opportunities for students underrepresented in computer science. The Computer Science Honor Society and coding clubs have been hugely helpful in expanding the diversity of his own computer science classes, and Mark is eager to share these experiences and learn from his cohort about strategies that have worked in their spaces.
Mark says, “When I first started teaching computer science, I was doing it alone. Through the CSTA network, I have been able to grow professionally together with others. We all learn from each other.” He can’t wait to continue that growth in community with the other Equity Fellows.