Cohort Stories: Meet Clarence
vol. 5, no. 19 — guest post by Clarence Audate
I’m very proud to be a first generation Haitian student receiving a bachelor's degree in computer science. I come from very humble roots in Haiti, and my mother grew up with her mom and siblings in a small house in a small rural village. I was not near the city nor an easy commute to a main city, so when I visited I saw how difficult life could be it humbled me. I can only imagine what the 1960s were like when my mom was growing up before technology was as useful as it is today. My father grew up two towns over in a bigger village, but also far from any main city in Haiti. They worked hard to bring themselves to America and provide for me, and it makes me proud to be a first-generation candidate for a bachelor’s degree in technology. They both tell me they’re proud of me and that keeps me going more than just for personal reasons.
I became interested in technology in a lot of ways. It took a lot of thinking for me to even try to get a degree in computer science. When choosing a major, at the time, I didn’t know anyone in my family who was in school or in the technology industry. I started off as a math major, and as a requirement we had to take Intro to IT. For one of our first assignments in my Intro to IT course, we were asked to create a code that wrote “Hello, World” when we pressed start on the program. It blew my mind, and I immediately thought about changing majors. I loved math, but I didn’t want to only take math courses. I loved working on the computer, and I realized the job market for CS was going to keep expanding as society is shifting towards using more technology. I recently earned my associates degree in computer science and I’m now continuing my education to earn a bachelor’s degree.
Changing my major to computer science was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.
Many things are exciting about being a part of Hack.Diversity. I would say first is the diversity aspect. All of us being minorities with one common goal is beautiful to me, and it shows that programs like this are needed and useful. Today was my first day and I didn’t know what to expect, but I had an excellent time. In one hour I met 5 people personally and connected with them all on LinkedIn. My network is expanding, and I now have like-minded people I’m around with the same goals. One of the fellows was actually an old classmate and tutor of mine.
I’m happy to be in the presence of so much knowledge, hard work, and hunger.
This is an exciting part concerning my network expanding and it was not something I was expecting. So this entire process is exciting to me, I’m grateful to be here and I can’t wait to learn more about coding and the interviewing process for an internship this summer.
