“Design and programming are human activities; forget that and all is lost.” Stroustrup, Bjarne. The C++ Programming Language. pp. 693.

     It has been a year since I began programming and I am surprised I made it as far as a I have. I made it through times of heavy personal doubt, looming deadlines, and the ever negative perspectives there are to encounter on the York College campus. Through all of this I have to give thanks to all of the friends that I made under the Comp Sci major. Without them I wouldn’t be as dedicated to this field as I am now. In those times of personal doubt it was they who reassured me that going for the highest attainable academic goals was the only way I can know for sure if Comp Sci was the career choice for me. Before that plunge into the science I was on the fence about pursuing a life of Comp Sci but now I’m sure of my decision.

    The experience that changed my attitude towards the field of Comp Sci was the REU program at NYIT. During the two month program I was challenged on a level I never experienced before. The math and code were all new to me and I was being asked to apply my knowledge to create a final product that will impact the world. However, my current knowledge and skill level weren’t enough to do all the tasks I had set for myself…the time limit was so constraining. Nonetheless I wasn’t defeated but intrigued at what I could accomplish in such little time with only one year of programming, some Calculus classes, two textbooks, and about ten hours worth of Youtube tutorials lls. My assigned partner also helped a lot and to him I am very grateful.

    Even still, Comp Sci isn’t all about book smarts and knowing how to code. Having a strong sense of creativity and being able to intuit the next move or idea are very crucial qualities to have. Communication is also a very important skill to have. If I had a 100 dollars for every time I was caught knowing how to do something but not knowing how to explain it, I’d have at least a couple of thousand by now. What I’m really trying to say is knowing all that computer jargon is cool but if we as Comp Sci majors lose sight of the true connection between humans and computers we become useless to the industrial and academic sectors. The connection i speak of is, without our ideas and hard work to make them better, computers lose their functionality to the world. We are at the front line of creating innovative technology for the next generation to interact with. I am proud to have that responsibility and pledge to do my best to better my eduction and open my mind so I can see the bigger picture and create a better world through Comp Sci.