Year in Review: 2023 to 2024
Last year I wrote that even though it was my third year of school in many ways it felt like my first. This year, it feels like my tenth. I am still two years away from graduation, the prescribed side-effect of switching between two co-oping majors, but for those who I went to high school with this marks the end of their college career and the beginning of a new chapter. Sitting here watching my peers graduate while I still have two years in front of me, for many of them that’s half of their entire college career, it is impossible not to begin to reflect on where exactly I am headed. For them, I would say this is the year of the sailor. A time where they unfold their sails to catch a growing wind out to new horizon. I, however, am still sat snuggly in the harbor. For me, I would say it has been the year of the cartographer. Mapping, aligning, figuring out when it comes to set sail myself where exactly do I want to go.
Perhaps the best way to figure out where you want to go is to figure where you don’t want to go. A year ago, I started my first computer science co-op with KAO, a beauty and cosmetics company where I did data analytics. To say it was a poor fit would be an understatement. By the time I finished my rotation with KAO I was frustrated and discouraged, but when fall came rolling around those feelings had ignited into a fire. Fall semester was tough with a heavy class load, but I came in three major goals I am proud to say I completed.
First, I wanted a true software engineering co-op. One where I was not the only co-op there, but part of a large co-op cohort. I found that place, to the pride of my advisor, in my co-op reflection meeting for KAO. There, another student talked about their experience at GE Appliances, an experience that checked every box I was looking. A conversation at the career and a merciful single round of interviews later and I had a job offer.
Second, was to take my involvement with NEXT Innovation Scholars and crank it up to the max. Thankfully, I was selected to be apart of the University Innovation Fellows Cohort, an international program ran by Stanford’s d.school. Being in UIF was a major commitment, but also a major opportunity, one that allowed me to take a lead strategy position defining the future of NIS.
Third, was a write a book. This one isn’t related to any sort of academic goal, it was just something that I have always wanted to do. A bucket list item. My co-op at KAO was remote and there were many a day where I was asking for more work. I didn’t always get it so instead on those days I wrote. First just whatever came to mind then something more refined and refined until I had set into motion a true snowball. My obsession blossomed and in the fall I turned my fledging rough draft into a self-designed honors experience working with a UC Professor.
Today those experiences are complete. I have finished a semester co-op with GE, I have traveled to the Netherlands to present our UIF project, and I have completed the first draft of a book, but when I look back the first phrase that comes to mind is one of endless cliché: the end of the beginning. My co-op with GE has only further helped me narrow down my interest as I turn my sights to my next co-op rotation. Although my involvement with UIF is complete, it has placed me in a leadership position within NIS that keeps me highly involved and for my book well a first draft is less than half the battle. Although it isn’t time for me to leave the harbor quite yet, I can feel the winds are picking up.
Perhaps the best way to figure out where you want to go is to figure where you don’t want to go. A year ago, I started my first computer science co-op with KAO, a beauty and cosmetics company where I did data analytics. To say it was a poor fit would be an understatement. By the time I finished my rotation with KAO I was frustrated and discouraged, but when fall came rolling around those feelings had ignited into a fire. Fall semester was tough with a heavy class load, but I came in three major goals I am proud to say I completed.
First, I wanted a true software engineering co-op. One where I was not the only co-op there, but part of a large co-op cohort. I found that place, to the pride of my advisor, in my co-op reflection meeting for KAO. There, another student talked about their experience at GE Appliances, an experience that checked every box I was looking. A conversation at the career and a merciful single round of interviews later and I had a job offer.
Second, was to take my involvement with NEXT Innovation Scholars and crank it up to the max. Thankfully, I was selected to be apart of the University Innovation Fellows Cohort, an international program ran by Stanford’s d.school. Being in UIF was a major commitment, but also a major opportunity, one that allowed me to take a lead strategy position defining the future of NIS.
Third, was a write a book. This one isn’t related to any sort of academic goal, it was just something that I have always wanted to do. A bucket list item. My co-op at KAO was remote and there were many a day where I was asking for more work. I didn’t always get it so instead on those days I wrote. First just whatever came to mind then something more refined and refined until I had set into motion a true snowball. My obsession blossomed and in the fall I turned my fledging rough draft into a self-designed honors experience working with a UC Professor.
Today those experiences are complete. I have finished a semester co-op with GE, I have traveled to the Netherlands to present our UIF project, and I have completed the first draft of a book, but when I look back the first phrase that comes to mind is one of endless cliché: the end of the beginning. My co-op with GE has only further helped me narrow down my interest as I turn my sights to my next co-op rotation. Although my involvement with UIF is complete, it has placed me in a leadership position within NIS that keeps me highly involved and for my book well a first draft is less than half the battle. Although it isn’t time for me to leave the harbor quite yet, I can feel the winds are picking up.