Growing up, I was always encouraged to participate in STEM related activities whether it

was at home experimenting with things such as snap circuits or at school participating in things
such as the Project Lead the Way program. I was first introduced to engineering through the
Project Lead the Way courses in middle school which I enjoyed and decided to continue taking
throughout high school. Through this program I was introduced to programming and electronics
to which I took a strong liking to both. Because of this, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in
Computer Engineering, and I knew I wanted to start it off at Iowa State University.
Transitioning from high school to college was very challenging, as it is for most people.
You are now fully responsible for yourself and your success in your courses and college career.
What allowed me to make this transition so seamless and successful was the many resources
provided by Iowa State. For many of my course I attended Supplemental instruction sessions as
well as professor and TA office hours. These resources were extremely helpful to my learning in
many classes, but they also allowed me to enhance my own study skills for future courses and of
course the workforce as well.
One challenging aspect of my time here at Iowa State was the Covid 19 pandemic. For
part of my freshman and all my sophomore year, students had to overcome many changes to our
learning brought on by the pandemic. Students had to transition from learning fully in person to
fully online, which meant students had to revamp their learning strategies. I was able to succeed
in this challenging time by making sure to attend/watch all posted lectures, kept track of
assignments through canvas and my own scheduling systems, and made sure to ask for help
through different forms of communication channels such as discord or piazza. This sudden
change in our learning environment forced students to develop skills to adapt quickly to any
learning environment. We also gained skills to be successful in different working environments,
whether that is fully in person, online, or hybrid.
Being a student at Iowa State has given me many opportunities, one of them being my
part-time job at John Deere. This position was specifically for undergraduate students at Iowa
State, so I am very grateful for John Deere’s partnership with Iowa State. At John Deere, I work
on their vulnerability management team where I help remediate vulnerabilities as well as
collaborate on projects to more effectively and efficiently find vulnerabilities on John Deere’s
various systems. For this position I have used much of my knowledge gained from Iowa State to
solve problems. Many of the courses I took, such as Software Development Practices (ComS
309), Digital Logic (CprE 281), Object-Oriented Programming (ComS 227), and many others,
have been extremely helpful to my success in this job. I have used many of the topics and skills
learned in these courses such as best coding practices, git, and continuous integration and
deployment as well as experience with debugging and problem solving when working with a
language you may not be the most familiar with. Iowa State has provided great classes for
students to be successful in the workforce.
During my time here at Iowa State I have been involved in many clubs and honor
societies such as Engineers Without Borders and IEEE HKN. I have been involved in Engineers
Without Borders since my freshman year and have served as their Treasurer and am currently
serving as co-grant chair. Through these positions I have been able to learn and grow as a leader
as well as a good team member. EWB has also allowed me to see the impact I can have on the
real-world as the club is currently working on building a medical clinic for a community in Ullo,
Ghana. IEEE HKN has given me the opportunity to meet and grow with people in my major or
related majors as well as help students build a strong foundation to be successful at Iowa State
through their Help Room. Through both of these organizations, I have been able to meet people
from many different majors and backgrounds and learn from many different perspectives.
When I started my education at Iowa State, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with
my degree once I graduated. Through the many opportunities provided by Iowa State to develop
students’ skills and have experiences with different topics and areas, I was able to find what I
enjoyed doing and how to do it successfully. I also gained professional experience through John
Deere due to their partnership with ISU, and I have now accepted a full-time offer. I feel
prepared to enter the workforce, and I am excited to start my career after Iowa State.