Skills for the small world - software engineering for local community

01 Sep 2023

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Growing up, I never considered working in the field of computer science. I was interested in what I thought were grandiose, abstract careers – astronaut, animator, music artist. I have always felt a passion for helping people and changing the future and I wanted to do so in ways that would inspire. As I grew older, my passion transformed into one of a smaller scale (but still important) – I realized a desire to support the local community that raised me. I recognized computer science as a developing and necessary field and had the confidence that despite my limited background, I could learn and put my skills to use for the community.

Though I admire my peers who aim to work for big tech companies and develop cutting-edge technology, I want to take another route with my career. Though I aspire to that level of skill and grit, I know I would feel dissatisfied with my work if I were not able to see it having a positive effect on people. I would like to develop skills that are useful to small local businesses and independent business owners, and develop applications that cater to the needs of the local community. It is also important to me that my work is functional and aesthetic - I would like to be able to create good designs and execute them on a digital platform, not just one or the other.

Formally, my professional interests are in user interface and user experience design, mobile app development, and website development. Additionally, I would like to maintain an artistic (aesthetic) angle in my design, while developing the skills necessary to execute my visions. So far I have mainly pursued experiences that allow me to work in graphic design and cultivate an artistic eye, but with the experiences in software engineering I will gain from our class I hope to work on more website and application design as well.