Professional Development Activities
In May of 2019, I attended a Philadelphia Tech Week event at Linode. Based in Old City, Linode is a privately owned company that provides virtual private servers. Linodes most popular products are their cloud-hosting servers. The servers allow their customer to back up their servers through an online portal or mobile application anywhere, at any time with the push of a button. While touring the company’s office I was able to view an ERD that displayed how the information from the servers is updated via mobile application or web. What I found most interesting was the flow chart they had that displayed the front and back end of their website. The visual outlined the interaction between a customer and their website. Seeing the flow chart prompted me to research UX design and build flowcharts of my own for future projects. This event provided me with insight and clarity which helped me decide what career path I would like to pursue.
1 Million Cups, held in the Comcast Center, is a program designed to educate, engage and accelerate early-stage startups. At this event, I heard stories from two founders of startups that involved how they came up with their concept and transformed it into reality. The event helped me gain insight into the startup world and how to navigate within it. After graduation, I would like to work at a startup because I want to be a part of the transformation and growth of a small business. There is so much that goes into building a company that I was not aware of, this event gave me somewhat of a sneak peek of the tools that I need to be successful in the business. These events are held monthly and I would like to attend more so that I can further educate myself on the startup world.
I attended the IT Awards in Spring 2022. At first, going into it I was a bit nervous, but I had such an enjoyable experience. I got the talk with alumni from the E-Board and gain insight into how the transition from college life to working life was for them and what I could expect. I also got to network and meet with Alumni whose actions continue to have a positive impact on AIS. The Alumni I met offered to help with mentoring and mock interviews which I found to be extremely generous. I left feeling happy that I attended the IT Awards because I got to talk more with my professors and meet very helpful peers.