Hello world! October 2nd, 2023
Hello out there! I’m Jolene and I’m (finally!) a senior at OSU this year in the CS Ecampus program. I’m feeling so excited to be in my last year of a BS after such a long educational journey. Starting capstone and finding a group/project has been kind of a jarring realization of “Wow, I’m really almost done!”
This summer was really out of the norm for me and was my first taste of what life after my degree will feel like. I’m in a fellowship program (FAIT) with the Department of State and have a guaranteed job for at least five years after graduation – longer if I want it (and get tenure). This summer was the first of two internships for the program and it was my first time not taking classes for a session since I returned to college in the summer of 2020. It was so different to not have homework to work on or tests to study for and to show up in person at a “career” job. I’ve worked in a lot of sectors (education, accessibility, customer service, quality assurance) but I never did anything that I felt like I could see myself staying in for the long term (10+ years). Deciding to get a degree in Computer Science has been the big catalyst to change that for me and I’ll probably be doing work related to the field until I retire.
I can’t wait to knock this quarter – and then the next two – out of the park and get going on the next phase of my life! I love learning and plan to get an MS in the future and maybe even go beyond that, but I’m also looking forward to learning about my new job and focusing my efforts on that next year.
