I'm actually starting this right now with my two teenage kids who are interested in going to college for CS. We are using an esp32 instead of a Raspberry Pi, but I'm having them work through all the hardware and software requirements to get sound (I2S) output, display, WiFi, etc.

My end goal is to have them create a backend api server for syncing data to the alarm clock, and then a mobile app so they can change settings remotely. I figure it is a good learning project for them to touch a lot of disciplines (hardware, embedded firmware, circuit design and layout, 3d modeling, web services, mobile apps) to see what they gravitate towards.