UHP Learning Portfolio
2024 - 2025
This past year, I experienced many moments of personal growth. The defining theme of the past three semesters has been to step outside of my comfort zone. This is something that I, and perhaps many people, are hesitant to do. I value ambition, so even though my introversion might lead me to stagnation, I found myself inspired to push myself outside of my comfort zone.
Going chronologically, in the Summer of 2024, I took the Exploring Leadership honors seminar. My team decided to help plan the annual IT Intern Summit (sponsored by the CIO Roundtable and INTERalliance). I have had experience with planning conferences before, but in previous years, I was on the technical side, not the true planning side. So, I found myself very nervous in the planning process. Overall, the conference went very well, and I have even been brought on as a contractor to help plan the conference again this summer. Pushing myself to take that opportunity last year opened up even more opportunities in the future, and I was certainly able to make solid connections that I might not have made had my group chosen to do something else for our project.
In the Fall of 2024, I had my second co-op with Fifth Third Bank. I greatly enjoyed my time there and was hoping to return to the Bank for a third co-op. However, due to external reasons, I would not be able to go back for another co-op. I recognized that, though unexpected, this opportunity was great for me. I realized that changing companies would open me up to new experiences that I might not have had if I had stayed at Fifth Third. Ultimately, I am excited to co-op as a data engineer this summer at ADM.
During this past Spring semester, I started my Accelerated Master of Science in IT degree and took the introductory course. There were many guest speakers, and consequently, there were many opportunities for networking. It is difficult for me to network with people because I feel that it might be too self-promoting, but I recognize how important it is in the IT field. In the past I might not have had the confidence to put my brand out there, but I am glad that this year, I forced myself to take this opportunity.
Overall, this past year has been rife with chances for me to step outside my comfort zone. Recognizing the power of making connections has been critical for my career, so even though I am largely introverted, I plan to continue to push myself to try new things and meet new people in my field.
2023 - 2024
In the past year, I have had experiences which profoundly impacted my goals. The 2023-2024 academic year was my first year on campus, and I had a multitude of impactful experiences, ranging from my first co-op to my self-designed honors experience.
During my Spring 2024 co-op, I had the opportunity to work as a data engineer in Fifth Third Bank’s Enterprise Data Office. I feel that I learned a lot and grew both technically and professionally. I worked on a Scrum-based team with other data engineers to develop and maintain a new data product for customer-related information.
When I first started out with my IT career, I thought I wanted to fully pursue software development. However, this immersion into data engineering showed me the possibilities behind data. I learned that I love working with data, exploring its intricacies and unraveling the mysteries behind it. As of this Spring, I am more inclined to pursue data as a career path. In fact, I’m continuing on at Fifth Third this Fall, and I will once again have the chance to manipulate and analyze data. I don’t claim that my career is set in stone, but this co-op has helped me realize how much I want to continue working with data. One specific goal which I plan to execute during this co-op is to explore a different area of the data sector; in the Spring, I worked with customer data, but during the Fall, I would like to work on the regulatory and compliance side.
Working at Fifth Third also reinvigorated my desire to give back to the Cincinnati IT community. Information technology organizations have been formative for me since high school, and I wish to participate however possible in the Cincinnati IT scene. During the Fall semester, I plan to join the IT Student Association. After I graduate, I want to continue with my participation in the IT community, and joining the UC ITSA is a great way to step into that.
Additionally, I completed my first self-designed honors experience during the Spring semester. I developed a website for my mom’s business. In the future, I will do more self-designed projects that I can discuss with coworkers. Before this experience, I hadn’t done many personal coding projects, but this experience led me to want to code more on my own time. During the next year, I resolve to complete at least one personal project.
Overall, I have learned a lot during the past two semesters, and I hope to continue to grow as I move into the 2024-25 season.