11 November 2023

Peyton Barnes
Alumni
University of Central Florida
847 Camp Francis Johnson Rd
Orange Park, FL 32065

Dear Future Self,

By the time I have graduated from UCF, I hope to have acquired my Bachelor’s of Science in
Computer Engineering, and hopefully be halfway towards my Master’s of Science in Computer
Engineering. I hope to be accepted into the Accelerated BS to MS Program so that by the time I
graduate with my Bachelors, I have at least 12 credit hours towards my masters already done. I
plan to pursue internships and work experience during the summer of 2025 and 2026, and
hopefully while I’m working towards my Masters degree, I will have either some kind of paid
internship or full-time job while I’m earning my masters so I can begin applying to senior
positions sooner. I will probably do the thesis option for my Masters since it's preferable to doing
six extra credit hours for the non thesis version. I would like to work either at a biomedical
engineering company or work as a computer hardware engineer at some computer technology
company like AMD, Nvidia, or Intel, since I enjoy working with computers. By the time I get
my masters, I’m hoping I will have enough money for a down payment on a house so that I can
begin working to pay that off. During college, I know that in sophomore year I would like to run
for Social Officer for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE, and then
hopefully during Junior and Senior year I can run for more executive positions like Vice
President or Secretary. I also think it would be nice if I held positions in the Biomedical
Engineering Society and the Association of Computational Machinery, since those clubs are also
very involved with my professional interests. I’m not exactly sure what drives me to accomplish
all of this, I suppose it just somewhat feels like something I should do rather than having my own
personal reasons for it. Then again, a paycheck is also most definitely a motivator to become an
accomplished student so I can receive a hefty starting paycheck at my first job. I also hope that I
applied for and acquired a position within Lockheed Martin’s College Work Experience Program
or CWEP, as it is both a paid internship with a good hourly rate as well as a prime opportunity to
find myself with more experience to add to my resume. This is an opportunity I hope to have
found myself with in the summer of 2025, and I hope that I have also joined a research lab and
self-taught myself the Python coding language as to make myself a more competitive applicant
for this paid internship. More than that, I would hope to have worked with Swaminathan
Rajaraman, as his lab on Nanobiosensors and Systems is something that is incredibly interesting
to me, as it combines both electrical engineering and biomedical sciences, both topics that I’m
hoping to have explored during my time at UCF. I also think that being a Symposium Team
Leader would be a good job since the hours seem good and the pay is above minimum wage. I
hope to have used the Resume and created for Honors Symposium to apply to jobs in the future,
as a good resume is a key to success for being hired for competitive positions, as well as
hopefully expanding my network through LinkedIn. I also hope to have used my elevator
introduction at Southeast Con for IEEE either 2024 or 2025 since I hope to form connections
with people and companies that are associated with IEEE. Overall, I hope that the connections I
make through extracurriculars and opportunities I gain through the Burnett Honors College, as
well as my very own effort to achieve success, will have lead me to ample achievement as a
student, so that my future may be a bright one.

Sincerely,

Peyton Barnes
(904) 365-0432
peytonlynnbarnes@gmail.com