Engineering like a Cyclone Engineer comes down to taking what you’ve learned into a situation you don’t fully understand and eagerly dig into the problem at hand, ask questions, and figure out a solution to make a real-world impact on the lives of the people around us.
Hometown: Shakopee, Minnesota
Clubs and activities: The Navigators, Software Engineering Learning Community peer mentor, intramural softball, volleyball (indoor and outdoor), pickleball, hockey and bags.
Valuable hands-on learning experience: My first internship experience with John Deere was the most impactful. It was my first opportunity to get industry experience, so I learned a ton! Being a member of the Cloud Security team was amazing at helping bring me up to speed on technologies, standards and how development in the industry works. The experience has given me a great baseline for comparison when exploring other job opportunities.
Most influential mentor: My most influential mentor at Iowa State is Joseph Naberhaus (‘21 software engineering). I first met Joseph in Friley Hall during my freshman year through a Navigator bible study. In my sophomore year, we started meeting regularly for lunch, reading the bible and sharing about life. How Joseph modeled his life and how he lived out his faith in service to others inspired me and helped me grow into the man I want to become.
Greatest accomplishment: Being a Peer Mentor for the SE program has easily been one of the best things I have gotten to be a part of here at Iowa State. The opportunity to help freshmen students transition into college and be a resource and friendly face for them was meaningful and impactful. It’s been a pleasure connecting with my students and seeing their improvement and passion grow for software engineering as they go through their intro courses.
Plans for after graduation: I will go down to Jacksonville, Fla., with the Navigators for a summer training program to grow in my faith through discipleship and evangelism. After that, I will search for a full-time software engineering position around the Twin Cities for software application development.
Making my mark on the world: At the end of the day, I believe the only lasting impact my life can ultimately have is on someone’s eternity, and as such, I intend to spend my life sharing about Jesus and the impact he’s had on my life and can have on others. I aim to positively impact each person I interact with, whether that be co-workers on a software development team or the clients. I can write the best code as much as possible, but the world and technology industry are constantly changing. That is why I believe the mark I can leave on the world is sharing a hope in Jesus that doesn’t change or fade away over time.
Engineering like a Cyclone Engineer: It comes down to taking what you’ve learned into a situation you don’t fully understand and eagerly dig into the problem at hand, ask questions and figure out a solution to make a real-world impact on the lives of the people around us. Within the software engineering program, the curriculum emphasizes hands-on, practical application through projects, which sets students up well for jobs in the industry later on. Additionally, applying the theoretical concepts from lectures in a practical way helps students to learn the material.