Ad Astra:

The Google Chronicles: Life of a Google Intern (Part 1) March 12, 2011

Well, first thing’s first. I know that I have not kept this blog up to date very well (last post was over a year and a half ago!). Journals were never my forte, really. But today I’ve decided to renew this blog. While I do not want to bore the reader with an extensive update of everything that has happened since my last post, there are a certain number of things that deem themselves as somewhat significant in my opinion.

Firstly, starting in January of last year, I became an undergraduate teaching assistant for the computer science department. The CS department at Virginia Tech has a UTA program where undergraduate students can take on the responsibilities of helping students with their course work, including holding office hours, supervising programming labs, and grading homework. Taking my first CS course at VT as a freshman, I was fortunate to have an awesome UTA whom I have since looked up to as sort of a role model. He was kind, humble, and always happy to help. I knew then that I wanted to become a UTA, too. The following semester, I applied and, after waiting a month or so, received the email that I was being offered the position as the UTA for that same course, which is the first course that CS majors must take. Frankly, I was ecstatic; I knew that becoming a TA would be something that was perfect for me. I would go on to TA that course for two semesters, another intro course for non-CS majors during the summer, and have now become the TA for the next course in the sequence for CS majors, which puts emphasis on data structures (my particular interest).

During this time, I have come to realize how passionate I am for teaching. Others have told me many times that I would make a great professor, and I have given it serious consideration. In high school, I would tutor students in math and physics. Now, aside from helping with CS, I am helping others with all the different topics covered in engineering, particularly the engineering science courses — Statics, Dynamics, and Mechanics of Materials. While I have hours of my own work to get done, I always find myself wanting more to help everyone else with their own work. Perhaps this might come back to bite me, but I just can’t help it. But with all that said, there’s still one thing that hinders me from choosing to be a professor — the research. While I love learning and love theory, I just can’t see myself wanting to do research. Perhaps I have the wrong impression, though. At any rate, the plan is currently to go into industry and, maybe, just maybe, I’ll one day decide academia is more my thing. (more…)