With honor societies being a popular way for Fossil Ridge High School students to get involved in things that interest them, they are beginning to have varying focuses. Fossil’s first ever Computer Science Honor Society is being started by a group of students with the shared interest.

While Fossil has existing clubs that deal with computer sciences and coding, there has never been an opportunity to earn honor credits for participating.

As with most clubs and organizations at Fossil, CSHS started with a spark of student interest. Kerem Gurkan, the president of the group, recalled a conversation with Caroline Menten, also on the leadership board, about their shared interest in computer science.

“We thought one of the best ways to promote computer science and get students to be active in computer science events and opportunities is participating through honor societies,” Gurkan stated. After looking into the idea more, they discovered that honor societies for students interested in coding exist in other places, and they decided to get Fossil involved.

While the honor society is not yet open for registration, the club has five board members involved in the creation of the club, including Gurkan and Menten. The main focus of the board, as of now, is completing the paperwork involved in forming a brand new honor society.

Gurkan feels that having an outlet for computer science at Fossil will allow interested students to take better advantage of the resources available in Colorado. “We at Fossil are really lucky. We have a lot of amazing companies nearby that have headquarters here,” Gurkan stated.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is located down the street from Fossil, and both Google and Amazon have offices in Boulder. “We want to promote these wonderful opportunities and resources,” Gurkan commented.

Once the club is up and running at Fossil, they will hold meetings and participate in events involving computer sciences and coding. Many of these events would involve Coding Club and Cybersecurity Club, also called Cybercats, which are the sister organizations to CSHS.