My fourth year at UC started off a little bit rough, as I was unable to secure a co-op position for the summer semester. I was almost offered a summer co-op for Scenario Learning, but they decided to go with the co-op they had previously had. On the bright side, however, Scenario Learning did extend an offer to me for my final two co-op rotations, from January – August 2017. Since I didn’t find a co-op for Summer 2016, I took advantage of that free time to enjoy what would probably be my last summer break forever, as well as spend a lot of time thinking about what I might want to do after graduation.

 

          During fall semester 2016, my last semester of classes before senior year, I was in three Computer Science courses: Operating Systems & Systems Programming, Networks, and Design & Analysis of Algorithms. The first two of those classes proved to be a little difficult, primarily because they were both 8am classes, which meant having to get to an 8am class every day during the week. The other CS course, Algorithms, was definitely my favorite major-related class that semester. While there was some overlap of content from previous classes (CS2 and data structures, for example), I really loved the way the class was structured. The lectures were pretty average, in that the professor mostly read from a PowerPoint, but most of the grades came from group projects that actually clearly applied the information from the lectures.

 

          For spring semester 2017, I started working as a Development Intern at Scenario Learning in Cincinnati. This company works to develop e-learning platforms for school districts around the country to use to train the staff and faculty. My responsibilities for this position have included backend software testing in Perl for their Accident Tracking and SafeSchools platforms, as well as providing IT support for the other employees at the office. While this is not exactly what I thought I was signing up for, it has certainly been a worthwhile experience thus far. It has also kind of forced me to really think about what I want to do with my degree after I graduate next year, and figure out what my options are.

 

          As for the upcoming school year, I’ve got a lot of work to do, both in and out of the classroom. In terms of classes, I will be starting a senior design project, as well as taking some CS electives and fulfilling my fifth and final honors experience. Furthermore, I have been thinking heavily that I may not want to pursue a career in something related to computer science, based off of the experiences I have had while on co-op. I have been considering going for a graduate degree of some sort; I’m not entirely sure what kind of graduate degree, but that is something I will have to further consider after I finish off my last co-op semester, and have a little more free time to get future-related things sorted out.