Hi! My name is Trey Zeiger, I’m a freshman at The Ohio State University studying Computer Science and Engineering. I was born and raised in Uniontown, Ohio, a small town between Akron and Canton built around the Hartville Marketplace. Throughout my time at Lake High School, I was always very interested in the Maths and Sciences, as well as our very promising Computer Science classes. It was in these classes that I learned my very first programming language: python. From this, the interest only grew. I caught on quickly to the programming design and thought process. During this same year is when I first joined robotics club and began to delve into RobotC. In these classes, I learned what I believe to be the basis of my interest in Computer Science, creating my own things from scratch. I continued through our Schools Computer Science program for the remaining two years and at the end of my Junior year, earned a 5 on the AP Computer Science Exam.
Apart from the Computer Science class, I was also a part of something called the GenYes program. At my High School, there is a career tech program for students grades 10-12 that was basically the IT department for the entire school. We would help students with their school laptops and take various Computer Science classes through Stark State. The company, GenYes, asks that each student log whenever they help a student/teacher, and after around 40 hours of experience, they give the student the chance to apply to become ‘GenYes Certified’, which is a way of saying that the company verifies that we are experienced enough to help people without needing to be supervised at all times. I applied to be certified, and after a video call with the CEO and other higher ups in the company, I was certified in the Fall of 2017. To my knowledge, I was the first High School Junior in Ohio to be certified and even earned the #1 spot in their ranking system for a few months during the same year.
Outside of School, I was involved in a multitude of clubs and sports, Including Varsity Academic Challenge, Varsity Lacrosse, and Rock Climbing in my free time. Rock Climbing was always my favorite of these three and continues to be a hobby and passion today. I’ve never been as good as other people in the gym, but the dynamic of working on a certain route for hours, maybe even days, before finally reaching that top rock, is one of, if not the, best feeling in the world. I believe it is this same problem solving and perseverance that fuels my passion for Engineering. It’s the same process of working, failing, and learning that I’ve come to love in Rock Climbing, and finally finishing a long project, or a long program, is the same exact feeling I get when finishing a climb.
I’m so happy to finally be here at THE Ohio State University! I was raised in a Buckeye family and coming here for school has been 18 years in the making and I hope the experience I have here will be just as life-changing as I’ve grown to believe.