My name is Edsel Norwood, and I have recently graduated from College of the Albemarle with an Associate’s Degree in Applied Science, majoring in computer programming. At a young age, I was often asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It seems like every time I answered that question it was different. It was not until my sophomore year in high school that I noticed the interest that I had in computer programming. Ever since then, I could not see myself pursuing any other profession.

I started with the associate’s program at the College of the Albemarle located in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Part way into my second semester I found myself coding not only the programs that I was assigned for class, but programs that I challenged myself to write. I found myself doing this because I genuinely enjoyed the process of brainstorming the planning and structure of coding an optimized program. After my first year I found that learning a programming language was not as intimidating as I had previously seen it to be.

I am currently attending an internship at Elizabeth City State University by the name of Science Gateways Community Institute. In this internship, we have learned how to use different programming languages and programming software such as R Studio and PyCharm. During this internship we will be attending PEARC17. The PEARC17 workshop is based in New Orleans, Louisiana and covers the objectives for those who show interest managing, developing, and using advanced research computing. I will be attending some of the sessions at the workshop as well as participating in the student mentor program and student volunteer program.

During this upcoming 2017-2018 school year I will be attending Eastern Carolina University for my Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science. While working on my bachelor’s degree I plan to explore different internship opportunities. My hopes are that while completing my bachelor’s degree I can participate in multiple internships and gain an ample amount of hands-on experience.

After acquiring a bachelor’s degree, my plan is to further my education and pursue my master’s degree. At this point in my life my goals involve having a well-developed career and a network of professional connections as I enter the field of computer science.