This week's student introduces himself. “Hi, my name is Ian Mills. I am from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean southern most island in the west Indies. I decided to come to the United States to pursue a degree in Computer Science mainly encouraged by my mother as well as educational opportunities available here.”
With that being said, Ian chose Clark Atlanta University as the school to further his education. “Clark Atlanta because my university of choice for a multiple of reasons. The first time Clark Atlanta came into my view was at a college fair and the high school that I was attending there was a college fair that multiple colleges came down from the United States and Clark Atlanta was one of them and I spoke to one of the representatives actually Ms. Davis who currently is the Assistant Director of Admissions and while speaking to her she really made Clark Atlanta seem like an interesting place to attend,” he says.
“Along with when I did my personal research Clark Atlanta was rated as of the top ten at the time of HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and I was also offered a scholarship to attend. So everything put together as well as a quick response from the Admissions office led me to attend Clark Atlanta university instead of other universities that I had also applied to.”
Studying Computer Science is Ian's passion. He says it is important to him to do something that he enjoys as a pastime. So with that being said, is his coursework challenging for him? Ian says....”the classes aren’t difficult for and it is not difficult because it is not challenging, but at the high school I attended we also had to do an Associates, so before I came up here I did an Associates in Computer Science,” he says.
“So it is a lot of reinforcing that I previously learned and the upper classes are definitely more challenging now. I will also say it has helped me and prepared me for attending my internships that I did and the actual industry.
Ian also says when it comes to getting an education; it is more than what he learns in the classroom. “To me it is very important, but I would not limit education to strictly to what you learn in the classroom, I think the educational experience is more than what you do in the class, what you learn from the textbook, but I think your entire experience at a university so living in a dorm room, interacting with students, attending different groups and extra curriculum activities it builds a more holistic person and that is what I consider truly education you know is building a person not just learning information."
As he looks over the past several years, Ian says there is a growth and development phase from being a freshmen student to now being a senior. “I think when you come in as a freshman the thing is you are still almost questioning what you want out of life and even though as a senior that question is still there, it is answered a lot more,” he says. “ I would say for me for example when I first came I knew I was interested in Computers I changed my major from Information Systems to computer science which is like you are changing from a Business aspect to a more technical and that changing of itself help me define further what I was interested in the Computer field,” he says. “To me I think change of development are more and greater understanding of who you are and what you are interested in and the ability to pursue that.”
Another memory, which Ian says he will always treasure, is the camaraderie in the dormitory. “The one thing that I will always treasure is my freshman year living in the dorm and the freshman dorm is different that most rooms you have a roommate and it is one large room and two beds and you share that experience, but I think what the biggest experience was I would be sleeping and then get up about one or two o’clock in the morning and if you walk down the hallway at least every other door would be open and there just would be people hanging out,” he says.
“You know if they are doing homework, playing games or talking, there was always something going on and to me just that experience that I can get up in the morning and it can be whatever hour, whatever time in the night and just go and hang out with some friends and know it is in your same building it is just that camaraderie, that brotherly kind of mesh I think that was the best thing the biggest memory I take away from Clark.”
Ian says his next steps in life after graduation will be to work in the computer field.
