I’ve always been curious about how things work. In high school, I got my first look behind the scenes at the technical side of one of my passions: video games. While it may not seem very impressive, my friends and I got into modding textures in Minecraft for a bit. This low-level kind of manipulation sparked a motivation to understand how this kind of skill is scaled up to create entire games and programs.
I’m currently a senior at the University of Oklahoma, majoring in computer science. The curriculum is geared toward preparing students for a successful career as a software engineer, with plenty of opportunity to move into research.
My family was small growing up: just me, my two brothers, and my mother’s side of the family. I could count the relatives we kept regular contact with on two hands, but the size and supportive nature of my family meant that we were exceptionally close. My grandmother and grandfather, Granny and Papa, had a huge hand in helping my mother raise my brothers and me and have influenced me greatly. They never pushed me into any role but have always been supportive of my decisions and made sure I had the resources necessary to pursue my goals.
I went to a small town high school so we didn’t have many resources devoted to pushing people into technical engineering degrees. I did receive a lot of support when I announced my intention to study at the University of Oklahoma. Guidance counselors made sure I had filled out the correct forms for financial assistance, helped me prepare for the ACT, and helped me sign up for AP courses to give me a leg up in transfer credits.
I wish I could talk about a single teacher or professor who truly stands out, but if I did it would be a disservice not to include another. The instructors who have helped me develop my goals have always been supportive of my curiosity and constructively critical of my creativity. When a mentor recognized my penchant for a subject and guided my experimentations with it, this altered my perspective on not only that particular subject, but how it fits within my mental narrative. My goals have been tempered and changed in response to these shifts.
Outside my major, I took a course called the History of Media, and it turned out to be one of the most difficult and rewarding courses I’ve taken. The course covered the beginnings of literacy, its effect on collective human thought and learning, and the technologies that increased literacy in the world’s population. All this was the basis for studying how information is perceived, manipulated, and shared in our modern era. It was an eye-opening course that’s enabled me to critically analyze major viewpoints influencing our world. To any student, I would suggest taking a similar course no matter your major. The reading list may be daunting, but you’ll leave with a much better idea of how to make sense of modern media reporting and large-scale ideas.
I’ve had a lot of different jobs and I always try to learn as much as I can from every one. The most rewarding for my career path, though, has been my experience as an intern with BMM Testlabs. Not only was I able to work with other engineers, I also got the chance to learn about the structure of the company from talking with its directors. I learned about the gaming industry as a whole by representing BMM and AISES at the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association Conference in Oklahoma City.
In terms of challenges at college, getting enough money together to pay for each semester and then planning for additional expenses has been my greatest hurdle. Thankfully, I’ve had great resources in my family, my tribe, scholarship programs, and financial advisors in high school to help me understand the financial undertaking of college. Still, there were surprises along the way. My best advice is to understand the opportunities available and sit down with a financial advisor who can help you understand loans and anticipate expenses. Any university you are scoping out will have financial aid information for prospective students if your high school does not.
It sounds terrible, but actually devoting enough time to study was another obstacle I had when I first got to college. In high school I never really had to spend much time studying outside classes. College is very different — the material is much denser, and there’s a lot more expected of you as a more independent student. I was certainly hurting for not having developed better study habits before coming into my first semester, but I quickly learned the importance of time management.
As I often do, I also turned to researching online for better study methods and found a multitude of courses devoted to teaching you how to learn. As silly as that sounds, the information and methods ensure using your study time efficiently while maximizing retention. I would suggest investing some time going through one of the free online courses (I took one with Coursera) during a longer break from school so that you can get through them at a relaxed pace and retain as much as possible.
I think I’ve made it this far because I’m studying a subject that truly interests me. It’s natural to do well when you can get lost in a subject that engages you. It’s also been important for me to develop an understanding of how I plan to use the knowledge and the privilege of this degree in my future career. This has been a great motivation for me to continue despite pitfalls.
My ultimate career goal is to move into computer security. As our world grows increasingly more dependent on technology to function, both personal and professional information will become more valuable to us — and to others. The more value something has, the more tempting it is for thieves. The same technological advances will make avenues of attack more advanced and prevalent. As a result, security will be an increasingly integral part of network and software development. I would like to be a part of that front line to keep my family’s and my information safe while making security techniques more accessible to the public.
