March 15, 2025
By Drew Bancroft
Webmaster
Receiving the 2024 AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award, LHS is being recognized by the College Board for its commitment to diversity in STEM. It is one of only 1,153 schools nationwide to earn the distinction.
According to the College Board website, schools that earned the AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award have either reached 50% or higher representation of female exam takers in one of the AP computer science courses or have a percentage of female computer science exam takers that meets or exceeds that of the school’s female population.
The College Board awarded LHS this prestigious title for last year’s AP Computer Science Principles class. The course, taught by business and technology teacher Ms. Orth, had six students last year, three of whom were female.
Junior Rabia Porne, who is currently taking AP Computer Science Principles, said she enrolled in the course to prepare for college, where she plans to major in computer science. She said Orth’s teaching style motivates her and her peers to work hard and collaborate to tackle class assignments.
“Ms. Orth’s lessons are interactive, and she makes computer science easy to understand,” Porne said. “Her lessons also allow people to meet new students in class, and we can use our prior knowledge to solve the problems.”
Porne said Orth deserves recognition because she works hard to publicize the class and introduce students to the subject matter.
“The award reflects the hard work she put into promoting the class,” Porne said. “I did not know that the school even offered the course until I received an email [from Ms. Orth] in the second semester of my sophomore year.”
Each winter before course selection, Orth reaches out to students who excel in their math classes and encourages them to sign up for AP Computer Science Principles.
“I don’t want women to ever be intimidated to go into a traditionally male field.”
Like Porne, senior Alex Skowronski said she enrolled in Orth’s AP Computer Science Principles class this year as she has considered majoring in computer science and wanted to expose herself to the material.
“I went into the class knowing practically nothing about computers and how they work. Now I understand the behind-the-scenes and all the effort it takes to do something simple,” Skowronski said. “Even if I score low on the AP exam, I will still leave with a basic understanding of coding, much more than I had before.”
Although female representation has steadily grown in STEM-related occupations, women remain underrepresented in computer science, engineering and physical science jobs.
According to a 2021 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, women comprise 74% of healthcare workers and hold 48% of jobs in life sciences and 47% in mathematics. Meanwhile, women remain underrepresented in fields such as computer science at 25%, engineering at 15% and physical sciences at 40%.
The 21st century has brought an increase in the number of resources supporting the advancement of opportunities for women, including Girls Who Code, the National Center for Women and Information Technology, Women in Data, Women in Data Science Worldwide and Women in Tech. These organizations aim to help close the gender gap in STEM fields and promote equality.
Skowronski said learning in a racially and gender-diverse environment benefits all students.
“Learning alongside people with different perspectives can help you mature and expand your way of thinking,” Skowronski said. “Through my computer science class, I’ve met so many different girls with the same interest, yet different perspectives. We help each other out not only in class but even after school when we hang out. I am so grateful to be able to meet other girls who I can call my friends.”
Orth, who has instructed two AP Computer Science courses at LHS since 2019, said LHS earned the same award for her AP Computer Science A course during the 2020-2021 school year.
She said she is pleased her class received the award again because it promotes gender equality not just in the classroom but also in computer science.
“I don’t want women to ever be intimidated to go into a traditionally male field,” Orth said. “One of the reasons why I think it’s such a good class is because it opens up and shows people, men and women alike, that [computer science] is not so intimidating.”
Orth said the field of computer science benefits from collaboration among diverse people.
“It was such a largely male-dominated and specifically white male-dominated field that you were only getting that perspective, and… you were losing the voice of some of the minority groups,” Orth said.
She said she encourages her female students to participate in a diverse workforce, working together to build a better world.
“I was very lucky to have a lot of female role models and a lot of strong female leaders… throughout high school, college, in my early career and in the business world,” Orth said. “Don’t assume that you need to look for somebody like yourself to do that…. You might find it in surprising places.”
