Member Spotlight: Nick Harker
Nick Harker is a CS educator at Spanaway Lake High School, one of four high schools in Bethel School District. His 3rd year of teaching will start in August 2026.
Nick is the current Treasurer of the board, elected for the 2026-2028 period.
Background
Nick Harker started his career as a data engineer and analyst at a small company in the market research industry. After 7 years, he was laid off. Nick used that time to start his CTE Education Master’s Degree from Eastern Washington University’s accelerated online program. Only a few months later, Nick found a substitute position to fill and in one year, completed his degree. Now Nick has filled the position that he was subbing for and looks forward to building his program!
Nick with a balloon that “looks just Nick’s two children, Emmett (left) and Stevie. (right) like him,” according to his students.
In the Classroom
Nick Harker currently teaches “Introduction to Programming”, “PLTW’s Computer Science Essentials”, and “Empowering Your Future (Digitools)”. He has an average of 25 students in each of the Digitools classes, and about 20 students per class in his Computer Science courses.
Nick also advises the Spanaway Lake HS chapter of the Washington Technology Students Association and looks forward to participating in the club competition this year!
Nick credits a lot of his pedagogy and practice to his PLC in Bethel SD. He specifically cites two other CS teachers, Devina Khan and Kerry Richied. “They have really given me more help than I could ever ask for, and I look forward to working with them for many more years,” Nick says. His PLC was also how he found out about CSTA and how they support educators.
Nick thinks that finding ways to make Digitools engaging and encouraging students to take the initiative will be his toughest challenge this year. These classes have many freshmen who don’t see “the point” of completing the work for the class because the skills gained from the class will only benefit them once they are closer to the end of their high school experience and starting careers. So being able to grab the attention of those students and get them to see the future benefits is really important.
In the Future
Nick looks forward to serving on the CSTA board for the next two years. He says, “WACSTA has given me such a great opportunity to connect with other CS teachers around the state and being able to affect how the board is run provides me with the tools to help other CS teachers too.”
At Spanaway Lake HS, Nick is hoping to build the CS program into a four-year pathway in the next couple years. “Being in a low-income community, Spanaway Lake HS is really missing out on having a full CS pathway and providing that specific potential income source to students. There is a whole career pathway not currently available to my students, and I plan on changing that,” Nick says about the pathway.
