Written by Evana Holevas —
O’NEALS — Luke Fuller is a sophomore at Minarets High School who is heavily involved in the Informational Technology (IT) program. He is one of the school’s top students and a leader who is willing to go above and beyond to succeed. Last year he entered the college level coding competition know as ProCo at Stanford University along with Minarets seniors Nicholas Cochrane and Sam Peterson.
A year ahead in his schooling, Luke had only just turned fourteen when he participated in this demanding event. While he didn’t advance as far into the competition as he would have liked, he continues to pursue his passion for IT at Minarets.
This year he continues forward in his progress in the IT field by being in a computer repair class for hardware and software.
“Luke is a genius.” praises Minarets IT teacher John Sparks. “He’s a self-starter and self motivated. He will take an idea and develop it through his own independent work.”
Minarets’ Creative Writing and Digital Publishing class interviewed this successful student about how far he’s come, and what he plans in the future.
“I actually started because of Minecraft,” the self-taught programmer explained when asked how he began.
“My friend had a Minecraft server that I loved playing on. When the server went down, I decided to start my own. As I got more advanced with coding, I wanted to start adding plugins.”
From this beginning, Luke explored more aspects of game and website design.
He eventually created a blog website along with security encryption which he programed himself. The encryption reversed the characters and got their numerical value.
This is one of the biggest projects he’s done individually but there are many other projects he’s been able to complete through the Minarets IT classes.
Last year in the Game Design class there were projects such as creating a maze game using Game Maker. This included students being required to create their own characters and include a simple plot line.
In contrast, the Hardware/Software class focuses more on learning the inner workings of computers, including students building their own computers.
Luke says his favorite part of the class is the freedom, as he tosses credit back to instructor Sparks.
“Sparks allows you to go off on your own ambitions and develop your creativity.”
Evana Holevas is a Minarets student enrolled in digital writing
