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Brenna Olson, Spectrum High School’s top student, will pursue a career as a computer programmer.
by Joni Astrup
Associate Editor
Brenna Olson came to Spectrum High School in Elk River as a 10th-grader, and she’s glad she did.
“I really enjoyed it there,” Olson said.
She described the school environment as “welcoming” and said she loved the teachers and students and made some good friends.
Olson also excelled academically and was the valedictorian of her class. Commencement exercises were held May 29.
Olson plans to attend Anoka-Ramsey Community College in Coon Rapids and then head to the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus to pursue a degree in computer science.
She’d like to work as a computer programmer.
“I enjoy seeing how computer software works, and I see the significance of computers in our society today and want to be able to play a role in that,” Olson said.
Working at Apple would be a dream job, she said.
Asked what attributes she possesses that would make her a good computer programmer, Olson said she’s an analytical thinker and problem solver, is detail oriented and is good at math.
She said it’s also very important that a programmer truly thinks about how people are going to use the software.
“Anyone who’s used a computer has probably run into things that weren’t easy to use or intuitive, and that’s the result of programmers not caring about that aspect of the software,” Olson said. “To me, that’s very important, and I think that’s why many people get frustrated with computers and don’t enjoy using them because it doesn’t make their work (or play) easier.”
That’s the biggest reason why she chooses to use Apple devices and create apps for their devices, she said.
She’s been putting her computer skills to work in a number of ways.
For her senior project at Spectrum, Olson made a website, 2 Minute Tech Tips (sites.google.com/site/2mintechtips), which has tips for Apple devices, privacy, security and Google searches.
Olson also served on Spectrum’s technology committee during her junior and senior year and helped in Spectrum’s IT department her senior year as an assistant.
“This is not your normal TA role of grading and copying – this is something that requires technical knowledge and is a very fast-paced environment,” Olson said. “I didn’t always know what I’d be doing on a given day because so many different things that needed to be done would come up at unexpected times.”
She also enjoys doing computer programming in her free time.
Her other leisure enjoyments include gardening and participating in activities with friends at her church.
Olson is the daughter of Tom and Gina Olson, of Dayton, and has an older brother, Matt. She had gone to a private Christian school before enrolling at Spectrum. Olson said they found out about Spectrum in a rather unusual way — from their dental hygienist.
While at Spectrum, Olson lettered in academics all three years, lettered in senior project, was selected as student of the month and graduated summa cum laude.
When it came to classes, Olson particularly enjoyed Game It, robotics and art and said the teaching abilities of her English teacher, Amy Kinney, were amazing. She also considers Kinney a mentor.
Kinney described Olson as a remarkably hard worker with attention to detail in everything she does.
“She has a sunny disposition and is always eager to apply what she has learned in the classroom to her experiences in the world,” Kinney said. “It’s been a terrific experience to have played a part in the education of a wonderful student like Brenna Olson.”
Asked her system for getting good grades, Olson said the key thing for her is effort.
“I will almost never turn in half-hearted-done work because I don’t feel like I’ve given my personal best, even if my personal best isn’t necessarily an A,” she said.