In Darwin Shorters’ computer science classes at St. John’s High School last year, one pair of students created an application that uses a smartphone camera to let people “try out” tattoo designs before making them permanent.

Another group built a mobile app that can connect to a grocery store’s computer server via Bluetooth and tell shoppers which checkout aisle is the fastest.

Recently, Shorters received national recognition for his work at St. John’s, a small community school on Johns Island where a large proportion of students experience poverty — about 85 percent, according to a recent state report card. The national nonprofit group Project Lead the Way named Shorters 2016 Computer Science Teacher of the Year this month at its national summit in Indianapolis.

Shorters said he was honored to receive national recognition for his work, but that his students deserve credit, too.

“I just tell my students it’s a tribute to them and all of the things that they’ve done,” Shorters said. “I’m just a facilitator.”

Before he started teaching, Shorters said he worked for nearly a decade as a computer programmer and systems analyst in the Detroit suburbs. He said he felt the pull of a new career in education, even though it meant a pay cut.

“I had my feet in two pools. I was in corporate IT, and I was still coaching sports at my alma mater,” Shorters said. “I realized really quickly that I couldn’t be in both worlds and do either one of them very well. So I chose children.”

After switching careers, Shorters returned to graduate school and earned a master’s degree in education. He worked for several years in Michigan public schools before meeting some Charleston County school officials at an education conference in Dallas. He said he came to work for Burke High in downtown Charleston in 2007 before later transferring to St. John’s.

All along, Shorters said, his goal was to introduce the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Education and Math) to students who might never pursue that career path otherwise.

“When I was growing up, it was just like it is now: Most of the STEM careers, students that come from a lower socioeconomic status don’t get exposed to those careers. So it is definitely a big passion of mine to focus on those underrepresented areas,” Shorters said.

Shorters taught math courses ranging from Algebra 1 to Calculus before undergoing training from Project Lead the Way to teach project-based computer programming classes. Now he works on the side as a master teacher for the organization, training new teachers to use the group’s curriculum.

St. John’s High offers three levels of computer science classes now, all taught by Shorters. Students can learn everything from the widely used Python programming language to mobile application development and Java programming in Google’s Android Studio.

This spring break, Shorters said he sent students home with an assignment: to interview people in their community about their specific needs or problems. When students return, they will start building computer programs to address those issues.

Andre Dukes, principal at St. John’s, said the school is “extremely proud” of Shorters.

“He never uses the phrase ‘I can’t,’ and instead embraces challenges and goes above and beyond for his students — making the impossible possible,” Dukes said.