Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

G.O.A.L.S.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.

  • Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc.
  • Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
  • Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
  • Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
  • Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]

Resume

Resume 2019

The resume is a Word document that cannot be properly viewed online. Please download to view as intended.

Informational Interview with Angie Thorne

I interviewed my computer science teacher from high school, Angie Thorne. I am going to major in computer science, and I thought she would be a helpful source of information, as well as a good person to do my first informational interview on since we already know each other. She currently only teaches part-time; she taught full-time for 30 years before 2014.

Since the workplace is a high school classroom, the atmosphere is mildly professional. The teachers typically wear business casual clothing. In the computer science room specifically, there are many tables and two-monitor desktop setups; the teacher’s desk is larger than all the others and can oversee all the other desktop screens via software. I do not particularly enjoy the atmosphere because I do not plan on teaching and I want to work somewhere with a lax dress code.

Angie has a BA in Math Education with a Business Minor and a Master of Education. She forayed into computer science education after a fellow teacher recommended that she join her outreach program; this was back in the ’80s when education in that field was new. She had the choice to focus her teaching career on either engineering or computer science and chose the latter since she found computers more interesting, partially because they were so new.

Education desired in computer science is not incredibly strict; because the demand for computer scientists is so great and the education for it is so unstandardized, most employers are looking for anyone with a computer science degree, regardless of engineering or ABET accreditation. There may be jobs available to only those with a computer science and engineering degree or a BS in CS, however, there are still a plethora of jobs for BA CS majors, which is the degree I plan on attaining, and many of the jobs exclusive to a BS are ones I wouldn’t want anyway.
Skills and abilities required for computer science jobs include problem-solving, reasoning, analysis, critical thinking, and an understanding of the workings of the components one is using. Angie’s best advice for someone starting in the field is to listen and learn; as a computer science student with a few years already under my belt, I can certainly attest to this.

Computer science, especially computer science education, is a relatively new field when compared to similar related fields such as engineering and education in them. She says it is hard for the computer science curriculum to keep up with the rapid changes in technology. Computer science programs, unlike those in math and science, can vary greatly between school systems because of the constant unique revisions made year after year. The lack of standardization is a hassle for computer science teachers who keep having to change the ways they teach the same topics.

In 2003, Ohio made a mistake by requiring that all new CS teachers have a CS degree, which dried up the pool of potential ones since CS majors make more money in the private sector. Fortunately, Ohio later remedied the issue by only requiring CS teachers to complete a district-approved professional development program, and since circa 2008 there has been a movement in CS education to get more teachers in the field. CS education is different compared to almost any other STEM field because the rapid changes in computer technology require its teachers to be lifelong learners; she says it’s one of the things she loves most about her job.

She expects the demand for computer science education to increase exponentially. She predicts that the number of jobs in data mining, data entry, and data analytics will increase, A.I. and cybersecurity will explode, and the number of jobs in app development will “skyrocket”.

The fundamental skills required for most computer scientists will stay the same, however, the languages and programs they will need to use will most definitely change. Like Angie said, which applies to all computer scientists, they are required to be lifelong learners.

There are many possible paths and options in computer science, as evidenced by its ever-expanding presence in every other field as well as in our personal lives. At Ohio State, there are over a half-dozen specializations for BS CSE and BS CIS, from A.I. to databases to networking. As a planned BA CIS major, I will not have a specialization but will take classes in a related field (likely business) and I anticipate going into software development. As I move up, I can become a project manager or a CIO.

Unfortunately, Hilliard Davidson High School does not offer internship opportunities for computer science students.

I expected the interview to go well and it did. Angie was very nice and answered all my questions to the best of her ability. I didn’t expect to have as much time as I did, so I conceived of questions on the spot, and I liked those more than the questions I brought in. I did not learn very much about the type of programming job that I would like to have, but I didn’t expect to learn much about it considering that Angie has not worked in the computer science industry, only in education. I already knew this field would be a fit for me because I have been taking classes in it for the past few years and knew since elementary school that I wanted to get a job in computers.

My next step in career planning is to network and search for internships, at career fairs and on LinkedIn and Handshake. I hope to get an internship during the summers so I can build my resume and make a little money while I’m at it. Being a semester ahead of the game having taken AP Java and my VR job in the MMC office will certainly help!

About Me

I am a first-year pre-CIS (Computer Information Science) major. I am interested in technology and am planning on studying abroad for at least a semester.