Sparta scholar comes to aid of social service agency

Sparta - David Greenberg of Sparta, a computer science major at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., joined six other computer science majors in creating a specialized software application for Third Street Alliance for Women and Children, a nonprofit social services agency in Easton. The agency provides wellness and education programs for men, women, and children; childcare; shelter for homeless women and their children; and adult day services. Greenberg, the son of Robert and Randi Greenberg of Sparta, graduated from Sparta High School in 2002. “I was in constant communication with the Third Street Alliance throughout the semester, ensuring that our interpretation of the requirements of the program was what the user intended,” said Greenberg, a senior who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science and an associate’s degree with a major in mathematics-economics. “We wanted a significant senior project that would give the students experience dealing with a customer, and Third Street Alliance was appreciative when they realized that work that had taken several hours could be accomplished in a couple seconds,” noted instructor Penny Anderson, assistant professor of computer science. The agency’s director of development, Betsy Walker, longed for a computer application that would help her compile mailing lists from information lodged in four different databases. The process of eliminating duplicate names was “painfully time-consuming but necessary to avoid wasting the organization’s precious funds on excess postage,” said Walker. After holding meetings at Third Street Alliance to determine Walker’s needs, the students wrote up a technical document proposing their solution, secured the organization’s approval, and divided up tasks. The team decided to use a version-control-management system, which keeps a working history of every change made to the computer code each day. Learning a new programming language was a necessary challenge to execute the project. “We were simply given a problem at the beginning of a semester - it was completely up to us to develop a strategy and implement a solution,” Greenberg explained. “It felt great to know that the client’s time could now be spent on the more important matters.” Greenberg has been named to the dean’s list and is a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, the economics honor society. He is president of Investment Club and treasurer of Association of Computing Machinery. Greenberg serves as a writing associate and computing services employee and plays for the college clarinet ensemble.