Rebecca Dovi

My CSTA Story

I still remember the excitement when I first discovered CSTA national! Turns out there were other CS teachers out there. At that point I’d been teaching high school computer science for seven years, and the CSTA was the beginning of creating a true CS community in our state.As a founder of the then Central-VA CSTA Chapter I saw the importance of bringing teachers together to learn and form community. From a local professor’s dining room table we went on to host statewide conferences to connect people from all over Virginia.During this time Chris Stevenson found funding to bring chapter leaders together and learn about educational policy. I remember sitting in a conference room with some of the folks I now consider lifelong friends scratching our heads – why on earth would we possible care about how education policy in our states worked?Her vision that making CS a reality for all students meant engaging with state departments of education and policymakers was absolutely transformative. The connections I made through CSTA have driven this work farther than we ever could have imagined. CS10K sounded absolutely audacious back then, and now we’ve grown far beyond, with CS standards and mandates broadening CS education.In 2013 my husband and I founded CodeVA, and continued our work with CSTA nationally and locally. We developed the CS Honor Society, and CSTA gave it wings. We continue to work with our local chapter – recently merged from many local chapters and attend the national conference.I can never truly repay everything the organization has given to me personally and to our community, but it is an honor to support the work in whatever small way I can.

My Story

Becca Dovi, Co-Founder of CodeVA, is a former classroom teacher whose more than 30-year career has been focused on innovating to build connections between people and communities. The spark for all of her work is a love of computer science. As a neuro-divergent learner herself and the daughter of a military family, Ms Dovi often speaks of the ways in which computer science gave her an educational space to call home and she thrives on helping others fall in love with this field of study and approach to learning.