Students create apps at Melaleuca computer programming boot camp
Friday was the last day of a new IT Boot Camp for high school students in our area. The free weeklong program was put on by Melaleuca at its headquarters.
Local high school students — and even some from Boise and Utah — got hands-on training in information technology.
“We partnered up with professor Rex Barzee up at BYU-Idaho, and he’s been fantastic. He had just a short amount of time to present such a concept to these kids. These kids latched on, they’re the real winners of this group,” said Brett Carlson, Melaleuca’s director of Strategy and Talent Acquisition.
Professor Barzee had the students make their own apps and they got to choose whichever topic or style they wanted their apps to become.
“I chose the Disney movie ‘Cars.’ That’s been really fun. I feel like it’s easier to learn and accomplish things when it’s something that you are intrigued in and want to do,” said Madison High School junior Rachel Balls.
“It’s like a Melaleuca product list, kind of; it’s not like official or anything. But basically, you have like sections on the top so you can click on ‘general nutrition’ for example, and it’ll bring up all the products under that category,” said Idaho Falls High School sophomore Ethan Corgatelli.
During the last class, they completed designs and made what they call “emulator graphics” to show what their app would look like on a phone.
Courses like this are a little rare at the high school level, so professor Barzee jumped at the chance to teach this boot camp.
“I absolutely love to see the lights come on in the eyes of students when they’re learning, and that’s what I’ve gotten to do this week is see that happen. What I’ve told them, ‘It’s been a whirlwind!’ What we have spent one day on – two hours of one day – at BYU-Idaho we would spend an entire semester on. So it’s gone very fast, but it’s been very fun,” said Barzee.
In addition to making their smartphone apps, the students designed web pages with animation and high-tech software. They were able to learn some pretty cool skills they can take with them as they start the new school year.
If you want to attend next year’s boot camp, call Melaleuca to get your name on an interest list.
