Bridging the gap between school computing and the "real world"

For the last two years the "Computer Science, Academia and Industry" enrichment program has been conducted at the Davidson Institute of Science Education. The extra-curricular program was especially designed for high-school students who major in computer science (CS) or software engineering (SE). The program blends formal and informal learning and provides students with the opportunity to meet with leading representatives of the CS/SE communities of practice. One main goal of the program is to bridge the gap between the school and "real world" of computing that is related to content, learning style, and professional norms. We believe that exposure to the state-of-the-art academic and industrial research and development, to advanced technologies and methodologies, and to professional norms, will establish a different culture of learning, and will provide the students with an entry point into the computing community of practice. Moreover, it is imperative that academia and the high-tech industry will take an active part in educating potential newcomers and will contribute to making the computing professional domain more attractive, especially in the context of the recent high-tech crises. In the paper we describe the extra-curricular program, and discuss implementation aspects.