Samuel's Story
I am someone who is passionate about Software Development. That’s who I am.
I probably wasn’t the best student in middle school and high school because I got easily distracted. I wasn’t able to sit in a classroom and listen to lectures, so I found myself doing programming in my classes to pass the time and to keep myself engaged.
I can remember a project in middle school which included doing vocabulary homework online. Because I was so fascinated with programming, I decided to create a bot called VocabBot. It was programmed to do my vocabulary homework for me. It uses a way of machine learning to learn from each question and is all self-correcting. I was successful in automating it and making a computer intelligent.
In the summer of my freshman year of high school, I joined the DITLE summer camp run by the School of Information Technology. DITLE was a program that was funded by the NSF ITEST grant and was in partnership with CECH School of Education and School of Information Technology. The DITLE program included the summer camp as well as internships and events throughout the school year. It was a place where I could hone my skills in Information Technology and gave me an amazing opportunity to learn from esteemed faculty in SoIT. That same summer, I was one of four students in the camp selected for an internship with the Information Technology Solutions Center (ITSC).
Through these experiences, I learned from a friend that I could take college courses while still in high school. The best part, my high school would pay for me to take these classes. All of this collectively inspired and was the driving force behind the creation of the Early IT Program.
I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity because if I could get a head start in college, I was even closer to starting my career. I understood the value of this at a young age.
Samuel Curry BSIT + MSIT, Accelerated Program
I was taking so many college classes in high school that when I actually got to college, I only had two years remaining. It made my transition to college a continuous flow with no disruption.
Now, I am a full-time student in the School of Information Technology working a full-time job as a Software Engineer at a defense contracting company called IDS International Government Services. I wake up, go to work all day, come home in the evening, and finish my school work.
I am proud to be in the School of Information Technology Accelerated Program, getting my bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in IT, at the same time. But I do recognize the importance of balance and I do what I can not to burn myself out.
My mantra: work hard but don’t overwork yourself.