Two Wayzata H.S. Students Earn Aspirations in Computing Awards

Two students from Wayzata High School were recognized for the State of Minnesota Aspirations in Computing Award through the National Center for Women Information Technology.

Ananya Mishra was selected as a recipient of the award and will win a $500 MNSCU scholarship. She was one of only six winners in the state. Annelise Odermann was selected as one of five runners up in the state for the award.

Mishra’s interest for technology originally started with her love of films and computers. She first started programming in C++ in ninth grade and won third place in her state Business Professionals of America competition the next year, earning her entry to the national competition.

In this competition, she placed first in state and fifth place overall at nationals for her video. Currently, she is also interested in robotics, photography, creative writing and plans to start an anti-bullying campaign at school. In the future, Mishra would like to major in computer science and become either a video game programmer or a software engineer and continue to direct films.

One of her dreams is to have one of her films as an official selection for the Cannes Film Festival.

In solving her family’s computer dilemmas for so many years, Odermann’s initial curiosity has since developed into a passion for all things technical. Her penchant for computers and knowledge has lead her to multiple computing awards through Business Professionals fo America and participation in her local FRC team as a web developer.

Proficient in HTML, Javascript, CSS and Java, Odermann also enjoys troubleshooting and installing Linux distros on the trash-picked computers that clutter the area under her desk. She has also recently extended her computer servicing expertise to a small amount of local clientele.

For the future, Odermann aspires to major in computer science with a second major in Spanish, Japanese or psychology and plans to work somewhere with interesting people and lots of coding.