• Name: Lauren Cairco
• Hometown: Fort Mill, SC
• Where do you go to school? Winthrop University
• What is your current major and degree you are working towards? BS in Computer Science
• Hobbies: Piano, reading, cooking

We appreciate you taking the time to serve as a role model for young people considering a possible degree and career in computing and IT.

Tell us about ...

1. Were you interested in computing and information technology in middle school and high school?
   Yes. I taught myself how to do things in Javascript and HTML in middle school, and then took classes in Java, Visual Basic, and Oracle database in high school.
2. How did you become interested in the computing and information technology field?
   My mom studied computer science in college and even though I didn't understand what she really did at her job all day I thought that it must be the coolest thing ever. She would bring floppy disk computer games home for me to play on her work computer, and would help me write code in BASIC on a little toy computer that they bought me for Christmas one year.
3. Above all else, what excites you about the computing and IT field?
   To me, building an application is like constructing a building or creating a work of art. If you work with passion and focus, and with the end result and its functionality in mind, the final product is something that you can be proud of and something that other people can greatly benefit from. I love that what I make has the potential to directly help someone else.
4. What are the perks (financial, job security, status, etc.) of having a career in computing and information technology?
   I don't pay much attention to all the statistics about job demand and salaries for computer science because they are not that important to me. I am working towards a computer science career because it is something I want to do, and I would pursue it even in unfavorable conditions. At the same time, though, I have heard enough to know that if I choose a career in computing I will be well taken care of in the future, and it is nice to know that not having a job or not being paid well enough to have what I need are things that I will not have to worry about.
5. What would you tell young people who are considering pursuing a degree and career in computing and information technology?
   Try it out and see if it is something you will enjoy. Don't limit your ideas of what careers in computing are like to what you are presented with in the first couple semesters of class, because a lot of times those classes are only laying the foundation for the exciting stuff. It gets more interesting after you get through the basics. Also, be sure to seek out opportunities to put your knowledge into action. Find jobs, internships, and research opportunities for your summers so that you can get some experience and insight into what a career in computing is really like.
6. In your experience, do the traditional stereotypes of the computing and IT nerd and geek hold true for most people in this field?
   Overall, I think the personality and interests of my peers in computer science is just as varied as it is in any other field. Some of my closest friends who are great at computer science are also talented musicians, sorority leaders, or dancers. Of course there are also people in computing who perpetuate the stereotypes, but it is not like their qualities are prerequisites for success or social acceptance within the field.
7. Talk about some of the obstacles you may have faced along the way in choosing, and working your way toward this degree.
   The obstacles I have faced in choosing and pursuing this degree have mostly been due to misconceptions on my part. I left my freshman year of college convinced that a career in computer science was not for me because even though I enjoyed coding very much, I thought it was more important for me to have a career that let me work with other people, and let me work on something that was meaningful to me. I didn't see how a computing career could provide that opportunity, probably because up until then my computer science classes had been focused on business, an uninteresting application to me, and had involved little collaborative work. However, the following summer I began to do research in a highly collaborative lab and learned that working with computers does not always mean being locked in a cubicle somewhere coding for some application you don't even care about. I was required to work with others and to choose a project that I would enjoy. Seeing that opportunities like that existed in computing encouraged me to continue pursuing it.