Chala Hannon is a dedicated advocate for civics and computer science education. Driven by her passion for community service, she made the transformative shift to become a teacher after working as an IT analyst in corporate America. She is an ambassador for Michigan’s AmeriCorps, a LIFT-TQP Fellow, and the co-founder of a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering young girls through data and digital skills training. In December 2024, she will graduate with her master’s degree in educational leadership and policy, and she plans to pursue a doctoral degree thereafter.
At the core of Chala’s educational practice is her willingness to support students in their CS journey outside of the classroom as well as within it. For the last three years, she’s hosted skilled trade camps, focusing on CS and digital skills, for students from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Chala also works with her church to offer monthly coding camps to spark an interest in CS among church members. In both settings, she’s reaching learners who may not have access to consistent CS education in any other setting, which makes these camps a terrific opportunity to develop digital literacy and a passion for tech. She prides herself on “creating a learning environment where all students can succeed regardless of their starting point or background.”
Chala believes that students learn best when they feel an active connection to the projects they’re assigned. In line with this belief, she offers “choice learning” for most of her assigned activities, which gives students the opportunity to showcase their CS learning with the tools and modalities that work best for them. She has partnered with organizations like Hope for America, Code.org, Project PINK, and Girls Who Code to bring additional resources and opportunities to her school and her students. As an ambassador for Michigan’s AmeriCorps, she hopes to advocate for these equitable learning strategies not just at her own school, but statewide, via legislative advocacy.
Chala’s top priority for her time as a CSTA Equity Fellow is to expand her knowledge base. The first step in getting her students the resources they need is knowing what resources are out there! She wants to learn new pedagogical strategies, deepen her understanding of advanced CS topics, and find ways to integrate emerging technologies in her classroom. Chala’s eager to learn from her cohort and collaborate on initiatives that can help the whole cohort to improve their CS teaching practices, with new curricula and hands-on activities to engage students from diverse backgrounds. “This fellowship truly represents an extraordinary opportunity for me to grow as an educator and advocate for my students,” she says.
As a social studies teacher, Chala dreams of coordinating a global classroom exchange where her students can collaborate on computer science projects with CS students in other countries. At the end of these projects, which could include joint coding challenges and global problem-solving, the teachers and students could showcase their learning and success stories in a format that would be accessible for teachers all around the world. In that same vein of building CS community, she’d also like to create new mentorship spaces to connect CS students with professionals in the tech world.
Chala is proud to be a CSTA Equity Fellow, knowing that it will enable her to further her goal of, in her words, “fostering a culture of excellence and providing an inclusive and loving space for my scholars to thrive.”