A Summer of Growth
My experiences as a software engineering apprentice at Square.
Anyone who has failed as much as I have knows how hard it is to stand back up and fight.
At the beginning of last year, I decided to study computer science. But coming from a background where I was not exposed to math and science, I was vastly unprepared. Going in, I didn’t know that I was to compete against hundreds of students who had years of training ahead of me. While my peers were studying physics and probability in their AP courses, I was training to become an actor at SOTA, San Francisco’s arts high school. In a computer science program with only a few, coveted spots, students like me weren’t meant to succeed. We were destined to be weeded out.
Despite the pressure and the statistics against me, I remained motivated to push forward because I was inspired by what I was learning. For the first time, I saw beauty in math and its applications to political science, neurobiology, and art. However, after failing countless exams and interviews, I was at a loss for how much further I could push myself.
It wasn’t until I earned a spot in Square’s Code Camp, after applying twice, that I rekindled my motivation to persevere. During Code Camp, I experienced Square’s engineering culture firsthand. I was impressed by how excited Square engineers were to teach curious students like myself. My fellow Code Campers and I bonded over SQL injections, Beyonce web apps, and late night ping pong. I was in heaven — a community where I could freely develop my passion for building things alongside supportive peers without the pressure cooker environment of school. Following Code Camp but left still wanting more, I applied for Square’s software engineering apprenticeship and was accepted!
My summer at Square changed my life because it was at Square where everything clicked. I was surprised by how the material I learned at school found its way into my work since the ivory-tower-academics at school never failed to stress that web development != computer science. As such, I was excited when my mentor, Tim Morgan, taught me about the data structures behind relational databases, functional reactive programming in Swift, and graph traversals for string manipulation problems, among many others. Seeing the theory I learned at school finally get applied to real world problems made me blissfully happy and hungry for more.
Months ago, I was losing steam. But after a transformative summer, I now know I want to continue pursuing computer science. I grew immensely from my experience at Square and am determined to persevere. From beginning as a mentee at Square to a serving mentor for Girls Who Code students, I am grateful for the professional, personal, and intellectual learning opportunities that I developed at Square.
