Gamer's Gift
Get involved with Gamers Gift, a non-profit organization created by high school students that aims to use video games and other electronic media to alleviate some of the psychological stress caused by prolonged hospital stays, loneliness, or poverty. Raise money for them, get donations of video gaming equipment, host a game night or start your own local chapter. Who would have thought that love of video games could be put to good use?!
Gamer's Gift uses "virtual reality systems to provide once in a life experiences to children in the hospital, elderly in assisted living, and disabled individuals. With these virtual reality systems, individuals unable to walk, see, or experience the world are able to choose 3D virtual experiences like scuba diving or landing on the moon." They also host game nights and "play video games with groups who would benefit from our effort to improve morale and make lasting connections." Finally they donate video games consoles and other pieces of technology to local children's hospitals, foster homes, VA hospitals, and assisted living facilities".
Your level of involvement depends on you. Help a bit or a lot, they welcome any assistance they can get.
How do I get started? Go to the Gamer’s Gift website and contact them about what you would like to do.
How much time will this take? The time commitment. depends on what you decide to do for them. Opening a local chapter is very time consuming, just doing a one-off video game drive is less so.
How do I expand this narrative arc? If video game creation and computer science is your narrative arc, consider building on this interest with one of the following:
Donate your voice to help train A.I. to give voice to people who do not have their own. Vocal ID is a fantastic, interesting and quick project to do for students interested in A.I.
Organize and host a hackathon at your high school to solve a community problem. This article gives some great tips about how to organize one.
Apply for a highly selective summer program that focuses on computer science and programming.
HOT TIP: Ideally you should complement this project with all of the above suggestions, but the most important thing is to use your programming skills to create something that benefits your community or the world at large. That is a far more interesting story to tell than just being an exceptional computer scientist.