Makenna Turner
| Makenna Turner | |
|---|---|
| Born | Superior, Colorado |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| 🏳️ Citizenship | United States |
| 🏫 Education | Stanford University[1] |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 🏅 Awards | Coca-Cola Scholar [2]
Ron Brown Scholar[3] National Center for Women & Information Technology National Awardee[4] |
| 🌐 Website | gostanford |
| Twitter= | |
Makenna Turner[8] is an American Computer Scientist and an NCAA PAC-12 Division 1 Athlete at Stanford University on their Women's Lightweight Rowing Team.[8] She became known for her early academic accomplishments while attending Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette, Colorado.
At age 16, she became a published researcher in the field of Computer Science and was named as a National Awardee for Aspirations in Computing[9] by the National Center for Women and Information Technology. CSEdWeek named her an Honorable Mention Champion of Computer Science,[10] and she was named a Top 3 Finalist for Youth Tech Leader of the Year by the Colorado Technology Association in 2019.[11]
She is notably the daughter of former-NFL player Chris Cole, niece of former-NFL player Giles Cole, cousin of U.S. Olympic Team for Track & Field member Brandon Johnson, NFL player Derrick Johnson, and NBA player Kendrick Perkins.
Early life and education[edit]
Turner grew up in Boulder, Colorado where she remained until age 18 when she moved to Palo Alto, California to attend Stanford University. She began her primary education as an elementary student at Peak to Peak Charter School, a college prep K-12 Charter in the Boulder Valley School District of Colorado. She graduated from their high school Summa Cum Laude as a part of the Class of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During high school, she participated in numerous sports and extracurricular activities through which she gained recognition. She was a member of the Boulder Valley School District's Youth Advisory Committee,[12] which focused on equity and inclusion within the school district. She was the founder of her high school's first Black Student Union and co-founder and President of their Computer Science Honor Society. Throughout her four years of high school she participated in numerous sports including Track and Field[13] and Soccer, which she had played since the age of 4-year-old until she reached the Colorado Advanced League Elite Division playing for the Trebol Soccer Club (now a part of the Football Club Boulder).
As a senior in high school, Turner was named a Coca-Cola Scholar, amongst the most prestigious honors for high school seniors in the United States with over 90,000 applicants and only 150 honorees. This scholarship was awarded to Turner for her achievements in service, academics, and "creating positive change in [her] communities and around the world."[14] Much of her outstanding service work can be credited to her Puerto Rico Initiative titled "Backpacks for Puerto Rico"[15][16] which she founded in response to the 2017 Hurricane Maria which struck Puerto Rico and greatly affected their school system. This initiative was covered by ABC 9NEWS in Colorado.
Career in engineering and research[edit]
In June, 2017, Turner worked on a student project called Soul Dynamix through an international student program hosted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology[17] during which she prototyped a smart shoe for physical therapy patients.
In August 2017, as a sophomore in high school, Turner became a product design intern at a Louisville, Colorado for a design contracting company called Floodgate, Inc.[18] where she worked to design products for the company West Marine.
In 2018, Turner became a Research Assistant for the Laboratory for Playful Computation under primary investigators Professor Benjamin Shapiro and Ph.D. candidate Abigail Zimmerman-Niefield where she researched the intersection of Computer Science and Education studying Human-Computer Interaction with Machine Learning. Their project, ALPACA ML, was presented by Turner at the Boulder Country Science Fair and by the lab group at the Association for Computing Machinery's 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, in Idaho. Turner concluded her research with an attribution on their research article "Youth Learning Machine Learning through Building Models of Athletic Moves"[19] published in the ACM conference's journal.
During Summer 2020, Turner worked remotely for the City of Westminster, Colorado in their IT Department after receiving a personal invitation for the internship from Mayor Herb Atchison. In 2021, Turner worked as a Software Engineering Intern at Amazon, Inc. working in their AWS division. She was invited to the position through her honor as an Amazon Future Engineer, a prestigious college scholarship provided by the Amazon Corporation.
In 2021, Turner began her research career at Stanford University working under Pamela Hinds, Fortinet Founders Chair and Professor of Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University.[20][21]
Puerto Rico initiative[edit]
During the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017, Turner worked to combat the disparity in education facing rural children in Puerto Rico through her "Backpack for Puerto Rico" Initiative. She worked with local charitable organizations and individuals to raise funds to purchase supplies for students and teachers at Isidro A. Sanchez Elementary School in the rainforest district municipality of Luquillo, Puerto Rico.[22] For this, she received state-wide recognition, on KUSA (TV)'s 9News and CBS4.[23][16]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Stanford Profiles". Stanford Website. Retrieved 31 Jan 2022.
- ↑ "Coca-Cola Scholarship". 2020 Scholars Bios. Retrieved 31 Jan 2022.
- ↑ "Ron Brown Organization". Class of 2020. Retrieved 31 Jan 2022.
- ↑ "NCWIT". NCWIT 2019 National Awardees. Retrieved 31 Jan 2022.
- ↑ "Turner as a Computer Scientist". Denver Business Journal. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ↑ "Undergraduate Listing". Stanford Profiles. Retrieved 31 Jan 2022.
- ↑ "Playful Computation Lab CU Boulder". Laboratory for Playful Computation Website. Retrieved 31 Jan 2022.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Makenna Turner - Women's Lwt Rowing". Stanford University Athletics. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ↑ "Four Hundred U.S. High School Women Are Recognized for Technological Achievements". www.aspirations.org. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ↑ "CSEdWeek". CSEdWeek. Retrieved 31 Jan 2022.
- ↑ "CTA APEX Awards: Self-taught coder helps students find scholarships". Denver Business Journal. November 7, 2019. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ↑ "Student Advisory Committee gives students a voice". www.bvsd.org. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ↑ "Makenna Turner - Articles". California MileSplit. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ↑ "2020 Scholar Bios". Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. 2020-06-24. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ↑ "Lafayette student helps with recovery as Puerto Rico heads into hurricane season". KUSA.com. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Future Leader Winner Combines Coding, Robotics & Altruism". 2018-11-29. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ↑ "Volunteering and Research undertaken". Amber 9025. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ↑ "Self Published Research Details". Turner Website. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ↑ Zimmermann-Niefield, Abigail; Turner, Makenna; Murphy, Bridget; Kane, Shaun K.; Shapiro, R. Benjamin (2019-06-12). "Youth Learning Machine Learning through Building Models of Athletic Moves". Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children. IDC '19. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery: 121–132. doi:10.1145/3311927.3323139. ISBN 978-1-4503-6690-8.
- ↑ "Pamela Hinds". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ↑ "Pamela Hinds | Stanford University School of Engineering". engineering.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ↑ "Self published Details about Initiative". Makenna Turner. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ↑ "9News". KUSA TV 9NEWS. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
This article "Makenna Turner" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Makenna Turner. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
