Information technology is vital to the growth of many sectors of our economy. PASSHE universities are ready to prepare more students for careers in computer science. 


 Content Editor

Success Highlights

 
Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg students are making an impact as interns at the national software powerhouse Siemens Digital Industries Software. Over the last three years, three Bloomsburg students have interned with Siemens’ software development team and received offers from the company to return post-graduation as full-time employees. Karun Mahadevan, a senior computer science major from Danville, Pa., is the fourth Bloomsburg student to work with the team.  
 
Computer science major Adam Hansen finished out his senior year at Cheyney University competing with the Cheyney team in the 2023 HBCU Battle of the Brains competition, where the team placed in the top seven finalists and helped take the Cheyney Honda Campus All-Star Challenge team all the way to the National Championship Tournament in California!
 
As a high school student, Elijah Toby had his sights set on attending a big-city college. The fast-paced lifestyle and exciting atmosphere of an urban area appealed to him. He changed his mind the first time he visited East Stroudsburg University. A computer science major wrapping up his senior year at ESU, Toby, of Folcroft, Pa., is already planning his next chapter.
 
Hunter Overdorff, a senior computer science major at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) from Brush Valley, Pa., is living proof that an investment in the State System is an investment in Pennsylvania’s future. Hunter, a first-generation college student, received the PASSHE Foundation Scholarship, additional scholarship funds through the university, and has held a work-study job (funded through the university) with the IUP Information Technology team since coming to IUP in 2019. He’ll be graduating in December 2023 and plans to work in a computer-related field to support the critical needs of the digital infrastructure. 
 
Kutztown University will send its largest group of students, 29, to The Washington Center’s National Security Academic Seminar May 16-24, in Washington, D.C. The week-long seminar provides college students from across the country the opportunity to dive into the national security challenges facing the world today. Students will interact with experts and public figures, go behind the scenes of organizations throughout the city, discover new career paths, and come away with a competitive advantage. 
 
With AI technology on the rise and in the news, many questions have arisen regarding its place in the humanities and education. In response, Millersville University created an AI Academic Integrity Task Force to help answer these questions and see how AI can help or hinder learning and education. Dr. Chad Hogg, assistant professor of computer science, explains AI, or artificial intelligence, as “computer programs that solve problems that reasonable people might have claimed cannot be solved without intelligence.”
 
When Jennifer Sayre graduated from high school with honors in 2009, the American economy was unstable. Having grown up in a low-income household, she wasn’t in a position financially to enroll in college, nor was she comfortable with the idea of accruing student debt. She had taken some advanced technology classes during high school and was able to get her foot in the door in the technology sector but wanted more. Stopping work to attend college wasn’t an option for Sayre. She needed something that would allow her to work full time without a commute. She researched computer information science programs and found that PennWest California had what she wanted, and it was offered online.
 
Through the combination of drive and determination, academic preparation through the computer science program, and leadership and vocational training through ROTC, Christopher Pozgay leaves PennWest Clarion’s Spring 2023 commencement ready to meet his career goals. He is commissioned as a second lieutenant and cyber capabilities developer in the prestigious, competitive Cyber Operations branch of the United States Army. He was selected for one of 68 Cyber Operations slots available to 2023 ROTC graduates nationwide.
 
Myah Enochs, like most soon-to-be college graduates, had a lot on her mind in the weeks leading up to PennWest Edinboro’s Spring 2023 commencement ceremony. While her peers contemplated the next steps of their academic and/or professional journeys, Enochs was focused on ensuring faculty and students at Edinboro had access to up-to-date, functioning classroom technology.
 
Bradon Walters doesn't need to wear a cap and gown to commemorate what he accomplished as a student at Slippery Rock University. Instead, there's a photo on his family's refrigerator of Walters in a maternity ward, holding his two-day-old son on his arm while attending an online Elementary Statistics class on his laptop. Yet even that moment doesn't quite capture Walters' entire journey. The 37-year-old is a wounded Army veteran whose first semester at SRU occurred at the onset of a global pandemic. He then became a father for the second time, and now, four years after enrolling at SRU, he's graduating with a bachelor's degree in computer science.
 
Over the last two months, Jessica Arriaga and Erin Shaughnessy, West Chester University Honors College computer science majors, have been addressing the gender gap within the field of computer science. Realizing the magnitude of the issue, they decided to work within the campus and local communities at the younger level to encourage more women to go into the field and stay with it. Other WCU students and West Chester Area School District elementary school children both benefitted from their outreach.