Now that I am in my final semester of college, I am able to look back and reflect on being a Computer Science Major at St. Norbert College. Throughout my undergraduate studies here, I have learned and built upon three main characteristics of myself: drive, adaptability, and creativeness.

As a Computer Science Major, it requires an extensive drive to better yourself and those around you. I have learned to take initiative to learn new technology, computer languages, and the skills needed for both of these. Without this drive, I would have failed a long time ago. In addition to individual learning, I feel it is also important to help educate those around you because many tasks or projects require a team effort. Leaving one person behind not only hurts them, but it also hurts the team.

Computer Science Majors, as well as some other majors, require constant learning because everything we deal with is constantly changing. Because of this, I have learned to adapt to anything that I encounter. With the rapid change in today's technology, I have learned to adapt to the change, instead of fighting against it. In this project, I had to quickly learn PHP, SQL, and more VB6. From the education I received at St. Norbert College and my willingness to adapt, I was able to learn these languages very quickly. Since I already knew most of the concepts, learning the languages did not take that long.

One necessity of being a computer science major that I have learned or built upon is creativeness. With every computer-related problem, there is no one answer to solve it. Every problem is practically open-ended with a number of possible solutions, but this also creates an open space to get stuck in or lost. It takes a great deal of creativeness to find a solution to the problem, but because of this extra effort that must be put in, it gives me a huge sense of satisfaction once I do find a solution. However, I have found it very easy to get lost in one aspect of a project because of the open-endedness. A key concept I have learned is to never get hung up on one thing. Instead, divide the project up into sections and complete each one, but never be afraid to overlap. In this project, the first thing I started was the new scheduling method, and the last thing I finished was the scheduling method.

At St. Norbert, I have became a well-rounded computer science major because I have experience in a wide array of computer languages and technology. I have built a foundation in my drive, adaptability, and creativeness. Although the future is unknown at this time, I am sure that I will continue to expand on these characteristics, and they will benefit me no matter what path I decide.

Following graduation from St. Norbert College, I will be moving to Carbondale, IL, where my wife will attend Southern Illinois University Graduate School. As of today (May 1, 2009), I do not have a job secured in that area. I plan to have a job initially as a programmer or system analyst, but for me personally, I want to someday transition to the managerial side of an organization. I still hope for this managerial role to be within the information technology branch of the organization I am with, but at this time, I do not plan to be programming my entire career. I have an extensive background education in Computer Science and Business Administration, so I feel that I could fill a role like this very well. However, my career is just starting, so I have no idea where life will take me. My overlying goals are to always enjoy what I am doing and to continue to further my knowledge of the computer science field.