Hamilton Twp. senior Sophie Coffenberry is using her HTML skills to build and maintain the local Groveport Special Olympics website.

 

March 20, 2023  |  EFCTS 

Mr. Byrd (left) and Sophie (right) take a break from the SO Ohio Swimming Championships.

Sophie Coffenberry, a senior at Hamilton Township High School and a Programming & Software Development student at Eastland Career Center, has been involved with the Groveport Special Olympics since 2017. 

She recently went from active member to intern thanks to the skills she’s learned as a student in the Programming & Software Development program. Penny Hilty, Coordinator of Groveport Special Olympics, said the organization is on Facebook and has stories in the paper on occasion, but since the chapter started eight years ago, she has always wanted a website to help spread awareness and recruit more athletes. When Coffenberry approached her with the idea, it was an easy “yes” from Hilty.

So Coffenberry went to work. She used HTML, of which she learned the basics her junior year, to build the pages and CSS for the background colors, styling, and photos. She’s currently learning JavaScript and is using her new knowledge to continually improve the website. 

She said her lab instructor, Mr. Derek Roeth, encouraged her each step of the way, and Mr. Neilston Byrd, a volunteer with the Special Olympics and a web developer by trade, guided her by answering any questions she had. 

Coffenberry chose Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools so she could get a head start on her career path. This project more than gave her a leg up by helping develop her interpersonal skills and allowing her to practice the academic principles she’s learned. 

“Now when I go to college, I won’t be trying to learn all new skills but building on the ones I already know,” she said. “I chose Programming & Software Development because I know that computers are already big in our world and will only get bigger. Also, I saw that there weren’t many females in the program and thought I could make a difference.”

Sophie earned a medal at the recent Special Olympics Ohio swimming championships at BGSU.

 

This fall, she will attend Columbus State Community College where she will pursue a degree in web development and design. 

She first got involved with the Groveport Special Olympics at the prompting of a friend. She’s played volleyball, bowling, and basketball, and currently competes in swimming and track & field. Last year, she was also named co-emcee of the Special Olympics Ohio Summer Games, hosted by The Ohio State University, and made an appearance on Good Day Columbus. All this while also participating in the Hamilton Township Marching Band as a percussionist.

Hilty has had the privilege of knowing Coffenberry since she was 12 years old and said, “I’m really proud of her. It has been fun to watch her mature; she’s a very smart, helpful, and overall good person and I know she’s going to do great in college.” 

You can see the all-new website at groveportspecialolympics.org.