TEALS student pays it forward

Tanner Tavel , a senior at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), believes Microsoft’s Technology Education and Learning Support (TEALS) program has played a big role in his learning path, which began at his rural Alabama high school. “I always knew I liked science and technology, but TEALS volunteers specifically exposed me to the computer science environment, and it made a big impact on me,” he explains. “I realized it was what I wanted to major in at college.”

Today, Tavel himself is a volunteer twice per week at Fultondale High School in northern Jefferson County.

“Now that I have a broader understanding of technology, it’s interesting to watch how current high schoolers take the same steps I took along the learning curve,” he observes. “They start from a point of not knowing much about CS, but I help them complete projects using my own insight. Some students become so enthusiastic that they want to go further by tackling more advanced work.”

Tavel has experienced TEALS on both sides of the equation. “When I was in high school, I had such a good introduction to the CS environment and coding in general. Thanks to my own TEALS experience, I was able to take those concepts with me to college, and I discovered I already knew the basics at a college level.”