When I came to college, I didn't really come with much passion for CS. Sure, I came in with a lack of clarity in what the future held and a bright amount of curiosity as a freshman. I had a far-reaching desire outside of class to try out new things, scour the school for free food and shirts at events, and traverse through many different orgs surrounding the inner campus. But when it came to programming, I had considered it more of a matter-of-fact chore to do. Having taken CS classes in high school, I assumed much of programming to be self-explanatory.
Hello dear reader!
If you're a college student reading this, you probably don't realize, or even care for that matter, that for high school seniors, the deadline for college decisions is quickly coming up. And with that, all my younger friends are calling me up for advice on all things college.
While talking to them, I came to remember the person I was when I was in their shoes last year, and realized that even though I have only been in college for a year, I've already changed so much.
Hackathons are really fun. Unlike college, where most projects in class are set in stone, hackathons are loosely structured, which gives a lot of flexibility on the wide range topics that can be pursued in 24 hours. Things can become easily scattered, though, even when there is a set theme behind a hackathon. Which means one of the first (and hardest) steps that need to be taken is to come up with an idea to work on.
Hello dear reader!
Last weekend, I volunteered at UT's Girl Day as part of the Introduce a Girl to Engineering initiative. For my part, I taught girls as young as seven how to design their own mobile apps.
I haven't always loved hackathons. In fact, I used to think hackathons were rather dull.
Because of a bad experience, a lack of coding ability, and no team, I found a lot of distaste in hackathons and completely shunned the idea. 24 hours staying up while stress gorging over fruit snacks and random assorted foods because of a project that may not be completed and needed to judges may look with dull looks on their faces? Not my ideal weekend.
Wanna go to Orange & Maroon Day?
If you’re anything like me, you’re thinking that Orange & Maroon Day is some sort of rivalry day between UT and A&M where Longhorns and Aggies test their mettle against each other. Perhaps in a field day sort of extravaganza that maybe involves some football and a written test of intelligence, where the winning university gets bragging rights over the loser.
Important Announcement: After blogging for about more than a semester, the department wants me to go over my experience as a blogger as well as talk about the importance of writing as a CS student and how writing can help you get a job. The talk will be held at 12 PM this Thurs. at GDC 6.302. The UTCS department will be providing FREE Rudy's Barbeque. Additionally, the first 5 students to RSVP to the link at the bottom of this post will receive a free moleskin notebook, analogous to encourage writing. And at the end, there will be a raffle done in order to give away a NEW Apple watch. If you have time, please come out then!
Fight against the zombie apocalypse!
This semester, I've really been trying to get more involved in volunteering and outreach. So last month, I joined an all-women team in the computer science department that focuses on recruiting girls, especially high school seniors, for UTCS. Efforts for this cause include sending postcards, calling, emailing, and hosting an event just for prospective girls at ExploreUT (the computer science program at ExploreUT itself will be filled with amazing events for anyone interested).
One way to look at life is as a series of choices: good ones, bad ones, ambiguous ones, stupid ones. I’ve made tons of terrible ones (including the one to eat an obscene amount of jalapeno-flavored potato chips last night) but also smart ones. One of my smartest, bestest choices was to choose to major in computer science at the University of Texas at Austin. If you haven’t guessed it, today is the day I sing praises and wax poetic about UTCS. You should have seen it coming because as a graduating senior I am experiencing all kinds of extra-potent school pride and pre-nostalgia.
Have you ever come to a point where everything you thought you worked toward seemed to crumble away at a moment's notice? That fear came to fruition this past week during the spring career fair. As I talked to a company about the workflow of software engineering, a thought passed through my mind. What if I wasn't meant for the industry?
