Tell me about yourself. What’s your background?
I’m a transfer student from Springville, Utah. My wife and I live in Orem. Among other things, I enjoy programming, musical composition, and graphic design. In a nutshell, I just love creating stuff. This summer I’ll be interning as a software engineer for Workday in Pleasanton, California. The IS program has been a dream come true for me.
What do you like most about the IS Major?
IS takes the hard, faceless logic of mathematics and computer science and turns them into real-life solutions that directly affect real people. It’s fun as heck. With IS, you can outthink seemingly any business problem. It’s like chess for businesses.
What’s a valuable resource IS has given you?
Accepting an understanding of business, programming, and computer networks, IS has taught me how to address large and complicated problems, like creating a web app or setting up a web server for example. Because of IS, I feel confident in my ability to break down problems like these into digestible parts and resolve the issue as a whole.
What IS accomplishment are you most proud of?
I am most proud of a system that my team and I designed during the first semester of the junior core in the IS program. Our system is designed for use by a local non-profit community center. Our system efficiently stores volunteer information and displays that information to the community center employees in a web portal. Our system will save the employees hundreds of hours of time and effort and positively impact the community where the center is located. I think our system is so neat, in fact, that I’m building it out on my own time even though it wasn’t required for the grade.
What advice do you have for someone applying to the IS Major?
Go online and practice coding. There are lots of free, introductory coding lessons available on the internet. With a basic understanding of coding, you can begin to create simple solutions. Coding is a great way to get your feet wet in solving real-life problems with technology. You would be well on your way to learning the more complicated techniques in the core.
How does AIS benefit you as an IS student?
AIS is the community! AIS provides both fun and professional events for the members of the BYU IS community to connect on a deeper level. AIS events cement our learning in ways that would be impossible within a classroom. It was through an AIS event that I met a man who got me my first interview for my internship this summer. 13/10 would recommend.
Written by Association for Information Systems.
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