A hub for passionate minds in programming, software development, and hardware, the Computer Science Club has been taking key steps towards achieving a tangible community outreach in order to fulfill their organizational mission. The club recently reached 2,000 followers on Instagram as the officers have worked to heighten outreach and ensure that the club has meaningful impacts on the larger community and its members. They’ve also grown the number of registered members significantly. Abiding by their mission to create widespread community learning and impact, the club meets every Tuesday where the club’s officers teach its members a new computer science-related concept, from conducting hackathons to discussing competitive programming.
“I definitely want them to learn something new because our members that came in on the first day all said, in their interest form, they want to learn something new. They want to learn things like machine learning, coding languages, how to make a website, or how to win a hackathon,” Computer Science Club President Arjun Bhardwaj ’25 said. “I want to teach them those skills that they’ll hopefully find really useful in their life and in their computer science careers.”
Striving to create an impactful online presence, the officers regularly post a variety of pictures and videos on Instagram that provide general meeting information, along with videos that feature major figures in the software and tech industry. Creating these inspirational videos requires hours of work and dedication, allowing this club to gain followers.
“Big shoutout to Andrew Zhang. He’s part of the social media team and he was able to create these amazing reels. He edited really well and spent a lot of dedication on that. He spent eight hours on one of the reals and ten hours on the others,” Yashas Banglore ’25 said. “He did a really great job highlighting the key values of the club, and inspired international students to join as well.”
While many organizations on campus host largely local social media support, Computer Science Club has worked hard to successfully divert from that trend. Not only have they gained attention from across the United States, but they’ve also started gaining followers worldwide. The club also has their own website where they currently post previous meeting slides. They have further ambitions for what they will post on their website so people can access resources internationally.
“The website is primarily for members to find the meeting slides, but now it’s also turning into a good place for computer science people from all around the world – not just from Austin – to learn computer science,” Sambit Kanjilal ’25 said. “We’ll work on posting a few handouts and a few lessons as we’re gaining more followers from around the world and farther away from Austin.”
Working to expand the club’s presence on social media and within the school, the officers offer opportunities that could allow its members to compete in hackathons and external competitive programming contests such as the USA Computing Olympiad. Their main rationale for providing this range of opportunities is that they all offer valuable exposure into the field, and will help enhance college applications.
“Nowadays, college applications are obviously getting hard. It’s hard to keep an edge, but if [students] really want that edge, they need to show passion,” Bhardwaj said. “A way to show that passion is getting involved in things like hackathons, which normally only college students do. Time is a commodity and if you’re spending your time like that, it shows that you have an interest in that.”
With the officers prioritizing the club’s social media and in-person expansion, the club itself is working towards its more abstract aims such as promoting the benefits of computer science to the community. The club is meant for students to learn more about the different fields within computer science and to spark interest in the realm, while also providing support for individuals in computer science hailing from various backgrounds.
“I [do] believe we can reach many more followers,” Kanjilal said. “But as a club, we are more interested in making it a better club for the students at Westwood.”
