Why UC Merced?
I've lived near UC Merced my whole life, I first stepped on campus during a 2nd grade field trip. It always sat pretty high on my choice of schools. The fact I could live at home during my education is what finalized my decision. Being able to live waive living on campus allowed me to go to school without taking out a loan.
Why Your Major?
When I was in elementary school, Ernie Montoya, a classroom tech who now works here, was working at my elementary school. He brought the Hour of Code into my classroom, and I fell in love with coding. I knew that it was something I wanted to continue doing forever.
Inspiration and Mentors:
My parents are probably one of my biggest motivators. They've always encouraged me to do my best and supported me throughout all my education.
Memorable Academic Experience:
One of the most memorable Academic Experiences for me was winning the I2G AG Division. I2G is both the last part and the whole of the CSE capstone class, a competition where we show off the projects we worked on for our mentors. My group had a scheduling algorithm as our project, compared to a lot of the more novel projects, the concept wasn't particularly groundbreaking. No one really expected our group to win. But my group worked hard during the semester. We completed all our goals and took care to showcase why our project was important and how it was different from existing software. Then after the poster segment and the presentations, sitting in that crowd and hearing that our group won. It was really cool.
What's Next?
I am currently looking at grad school PhD programs.
