How did you get started with computer programming?
It was just something that I wanted to try. Originally, I was more interested in making video games, which is something I am still interested in even though I actually never played video games that much. I’m mostly into the concept of a video game as a medium for telling stories because it’s such an immersive art form that has not been explored that much.
During my junior year in high school, we did an ethics project where we were given a pool of fake applicants and we had to decide whether or not we would reject the applicant. I decided to follow a bunch of online tutorials and figure out a way where I’d be able to sort and organize the hypothetical applicants’ GPA, leadership, and diversity. By making it mathematically based, I found a different way of looking at the information, and I really liked that it was very rewarding.
The following year, I took AP Computer Science at school, and because I was able to get through the AP curriculum pretty quickly, I knew Java pretty fluently by the time I decided to learn Ruby at the CodeNow workshop. Since I already had a background in computer programming, I was able to pick up the language pretty quickly so the trainer had me work on the backend in Rails.
Leading up to the start of your first semester at Harvard, what steps did you take to continue coding?
During the spring break of my senior year, I had a fellowship at the Bay Area Video Coalition. They helped us get placed in summer internships and I ended up getting placed with the Lumosity games team. From there, I went on to Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute and that’s where I ended up having a really long crash course in Python. I built a project in Python, and I think having such a short amount of time to learn a language is the reason why it has become my strongest language.
What did you do after that summer?
During the fall, I did WHACK, which is the hackathon held at Wellesley College. The event itself was very low-key and friendly, so that made it a fun experience for me. The following weekend, I went to MHacks with a few friends. Facebook gave us an award for what we built, and invited us to the Facebook Global Hackathon.
What are your long-term goals?
After I graduate from college, I would like to continue working at big tech companies before moving into the education nonprofit sector. Over the winter break, instead of a tech internship, I interned at a nonprofit organization in San Francisco where I was able to work with ESL students on their creative writing. During this semester, I will be coordinating a similar after-school program for students.
“The fact that I can do things that are important me and solve meaningful problems is something that I really enjoy about coding.”
What has been your proudest accomplishment so far?
One thing that I’m proud of with my coding is that I’m able to use it to solve interesting problems. The fact that I can do things that are important me and solve meaningful problems is something that I really enjoy about coding.
What advice would you give someone interested in trying out coding?
Try it. You have nothing to lose. Even people who aren’t computer science majors think that they should at least take one CS class before graduation. If you end up liking it, great! If you don’t, it’s still a valuable skill to have. Even if you can’t code, it’s good to understand the logic. Coding helps you think very logically, which is a skill that everyone can utilize in any fashion.
Megan is a computer science major at Harvard University. Having already secured a summer internship at Google, she looks forward to a semester of interesting classes and solving meaningful problems through code.
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