Decoding the CS Dojo

At Stuyvesant, computer science (CS) classes are some of the most popular and sought-after classes. Students fighting for a spot in Artificial Intelligence during spring program changes or ranking Advanced Placement (AP) CS as their first choice AP is not an uncommon sight. Therefore, it makes sense that the CS Dojo exists and serves as a tutoring service for students. Students who take CS courses or work on individual CS projects are often found there. Though it is mostly known as a place to seek help for CS, the CS Dojo does much more than just that, providing fellow CS students a sense of community.

Before the CS Dojo, the main system of CS tutoring consisted of something similar to after school academic intervention services (AIS) tutoring. CS head JonAlf Dyrland-Weaver would run AIS CS tutoring twice a week, but the CS teachers found it ineffective. Ideas about a new system of tutoring came about during the summer of 2013. CS teachers Michael Zamansky, Samuel Konstantinovich, Topher Brown Mykolyk, and Dyrland-Weaver began a program called SHIP (Summer Hackers Immersion Program). “The program was designed to provide [a] meaningful CS education to students that may not have access to it in their own schools,” said Dyrland-Weaver. It ran for four weeks and was hosted at St. Joseph’s University in Brooklyn. In the program, Stuyvesant students learned advanced topics, worked on projects, and served as teaching assistants (TA) for the regular non-Stuyvesant participants. A group of four regular participants would have an assigned TA to guide and work with them on their final projects. This system seemed to work much better, and the students were benefiting more, as opposed to the conventional AIS tutoring sessions. It sparked the conversation about improving the CS tutoring method, and eventually, the CS Dojo was born.

“Remove the stigma of tutoring, make the environment more inviting, give students the ability to take ownership of their own learning, and create a space for the CS community to grow,” outlined Dyrland-Weaver. These were the goals of the new CS Dojo. The term “Dojo” described the purpose of the new CS tutoring system perfectly: a place where students could improve their skills through the guidance of a student tutor or on their own.

The Dojo began running in the 2013-2014 school year. The initial group of head tutors, known as “sensei” in CS Dojo terms, was composed of Miranda Chaiken (’14), Jenny Baran (’14), and Nadia Saleh (’14). Senseis, typically seniors, are the overall leaders of the CS Dojo and apply at the end of the school year. They have to be senpais first and are selected after being evaluated and interviewed by CS teachers and the current senseis. Senpais, typically juniors, go through a similar process but are interviewed by the senseis, with guidance from CS teachers. The current senseis for the 2019-2020 school year are seniors William Cao, Brian Moses, Greg Zborovsky, and Emma Choi.

The current Dojo system of four senseis ensures that at least one is on duty during a Dojo session. Senseis usually stay in the front and are in charge of ensuring that everything is running smoothly. Five to 10 senpais are available to help at each Dojo session. They are trained on how to effectively help students and walk around the Dojo to help students requiring assistance.

Zborovsky, who enjoys CS classes and helping others with it, became a senpai at the beginning of his junior year. “The community of other senpais and senseis is quite welcoming and open for discussion,” he said. He described the environment of the Dojo as very relaxed and friendly. “Staying connected with the CS community, actually helping people, [and] seeing the same people come in, clearly learning and building on what you've shown them or clarified before” are the most rewarding parts, Zborovsky stated. Now, he is a sensei, and his role consists of mostly management—making sure that no visiting students are going unnoticed, communicating between the teachers and students, and operating the physical CS Dojo room.

Choi’s motivation to become a sensei came from her personal experience of initially being intimidated by CS. “A lot of your ability in CS is your belief in whether you can do it or not and whether you can keep pushing to find a solution, and I wanted to help motivate other kids to be able to make CS more approachable to them too,” Choi said. A stereotype that senseis and senpais are trying to get rid of is that the Dojo is just for those who need help. “Along with the past couple years of sensei, we've done a lot of outreach and emphasized that the Dojo is for people of all levels, whether you're struggling in the class and need some help, or you're working on your own personal project and need some feedback. We're also open to any student who just wants to use the computers to do their homework in a chill, laid back environment surrounded by people,” Choi emphasized.

The CS Dojo has also been highly beneficial for visiting students, offering a pleasant atmosphere and giving them the necessary guidance. Sophomore Rickey Dong started visiting the CS Dojo a few months into the first semester when the NetLogo homework assignments from his annual CS class started getting difficult. “I went to the Dojo, and the senpais were extremely helpful. Since then, I've been going to the Dojo whenever I [have] the time and a hard homework assignment I needed to work on. Had I not gone to the Dojo, I probably would've lost countless hours of sleep, especially over the NetLogo final project,” said Dong. He described his experience at the Dojo as very positive: “The senpais and senseis there really know their stuff, and they're really friendly and willing to help out. The atmosphere is nice and inviting, and they have a nice variety of music playing in the background.”

In the current quarantine due to the COVID-19 crisis, the Dojo has been running online through Slack, an online chatroom for operations. This system started on April 1, and the senseis and senpais are continuing to provide assistance. It has been working well, but the senseis are already thinking about what more they can do to further reach out to students.

As for improving the Dojo, one improvement Dyrland-Weaver and Mykolyk had in mind was making the Dojo run all day so that more students could have access to it. The CS Dojo has grown significantly over the years from the standard AIS tutoring service to an open community that welcomes all kinds of students, whether they are struggling with a CS concept or simply want a place to work on an independent project. Its welcoming environment is appealing to the mentors and mentees that go there, providing a safe haven for students in the Stuyvesant community.