The Cutler Scholars program has suddenly become very relevant to the Russ College of Engineering and Technology; this year, the program is proud to announce a new scholarship designated exclusively for an outstanding student who has already been accepted by the Russ College of Engineering and who intends to pursue an engineering degree. The administration at Russ College has worked closely with those at Cutler Scholars (it’s cool to see my jobs overlap!) to nominate students, collect and filter applicants, select and interview finalists, and then to finally choose the new scholar.

The Robe/Russ Legacy-Cutler Scholarship is named after two incredible families in recognition of their service and support to the college of engineering.

Dick Robe was dean of the engineering college for 16 years, spent more than 40 years in academia, and lists one of his major accomplishments as participating in the education of more than 10,000 students in his time at OU! Robe has been unfailingly dedicated not only to engineering, but also to the education of new engineers. Though he is retired from academia, his support (and that of his wife, Ellie) continues through endowments which fund scholarships like this one.

You probably recognize the name “Russ”, since it’s the name of our college! Dr. Fritz Russ graduated from the College of Engineering in 1942 and with his wife, Dolores, they began their own company, Systems Research Laboratories, which became extremely successful and very influential among research firms. With that success, the Russes contributed more than $124 million to the Russ College--a gift that is the largest donation given to any public college of engineering in the United States.

I will be starting in early July as a software consultant with Sogeti, which is a Parisian company with its US headquarters in Dayton, Ohio--my hometown. I’ll be a pleasant distance from my parents (about 20 minutes); I haven’t enjoyed being 2.5 hours away from them. I’ve always loved Dayton--there’s plenty to do there, but it’s not a huge, overwhelming city--and I am very pleased to be going back.

I’m also very pleased with my new job. As a consultant, I will be spending a month to a year working at different companies on their own issues and products. I’ll never spend too long on one project (something I was very afraid of when I started job searching) or even in one building. Plus, Sogeti has many different sectors of software (mobile, windows, database, etc.) and there’s a ton of opportunities for promotion!

Anyway, please excuse the self-centered post--I’m so excited to have a job lined up and (hopefully soon!) a new home to go to, and I wanted to share the news!

Recently, though, my programs have become both conceptually deep and difficult to code...as well as really, really awesome. Most recently, we were assigned to create our own command shell. (If you don’t know that a command shell is, think Jurassic Park. A shell provides a command line interface with the computer, and a user uses an input to give commands to the computer, including running programs and manipulating files.) This is particularly cool, because we’ve spent our entire times here using the shell to run our programs...and now we were writing a program to create a shell, and then running that shell inside of another shell!

Anyway, this may not sound as awesome to you as it is to me, but believe me---the stuff we do as computer science upperclassmen is awesome.

“Introduction to study of political theory: examination of selected political issues and theorists from philosophical perspective. Emphasis on developing one’s own political values and theories.”

As we’re working through the works and philosophies of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau, it is remarkable how fresh and applicable their theories are today. Even if you aren’t particularly interested in politics (as myself), the theories transcend the typical political environment one probably thinks of (Washington D.C., Senate, the House, etc.) and sheds light on everyday interactions between people, and why we do the things that we do.

I was uncertain how I would like this class when first signing up to take it, but these first few weeks have helped provide me with a solid base for my own beliefs and I’m definitely looking forward to what the rest of the quarter has to offer.

Our most recent favorite is Dominion. It's a deck building game with about a billion expansions and permutations, so every game is completely different. Our most epic game is Runewars. It's SO EPIC. In this game you collect resources, recruit units (which are adorable little plastic figures), and fight each other with both those units and your heroes.

The group's all-time favorite board game is Arkham Horror. Arkham Horror is SO AWESOME that it isn't on our board game cabinet--that's because we can't play it our house because the board takes up so much room, so it's currently living at our friend's house. We meet every Friday night and play a few games while we drink and eat popcorn. Especially now, in the winter, game night is an awesome alternative to going out in the freezing cold! Just goes to show that there’s plenty to do in Athens, even if it’s pretty unconventional entertainment.

The most exciting interview I’ve earned so far was with a large banking institution; it was a second/final round interview, and it was considered a “Super Day” (so lots of interviewees travel to one location to meet with lots of interviewers). This particular Super Day was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--quite a drive from Athens. At first, I panicked a little about the interview. How would I get there? Where would I stay? How would I afford the gas, parking, and hotel??

The thing I have to tell myself in these situations, however, is that the employer wants me just as much as I want the job. An interview is not just about me selling myself to an employer--the company also has to convince me that I want to work there. When I mentioned that I was almost four hours away from the interview, the company booked me a hotel room and offered to pay for gas and wear on my car (in fact, there were many people at the interviews who had been flown to Pittsburgh). The day was not all about the potential employees--the company representatives spent a lot of time telling us about company culture, highlighting benefits, and telling us about the company’s goals and ideals.

In addition to the help from the company, my professors are very sympathetic to missing class for career-related reasons. Teachers realize that we’re in school in order to get a job, and that at some point job searching has to be just as important (if not more important) than class. All of my professors have been very sympathetic to our absences due to interviews and career fairs; we don’t get marked absent, a sincere effort is made to make sure we don’t miss content, and occasionally (especially if the interview is a long drive away) we even get extensions on assignments.

I was nervous about interviewing with such a big company and so far from home, yes. But everyone helped so much along the way - making sure I didn’t have to worry about money, class, homework, etc. etc., that I was able to focus on my actual interview!

Luckily there are plenty of ways for graduating students (or even students looking for co-ops and internships) to find work without leaving campus. The career fairs, both the campus-wide fair and the one specifically for Russ College students and alumni, are great ways to network and earn interviews. Career fairs are a lot of work and are pretty stressful, but nothing really beats meeting a recruiter face to face and handing him or her your resumé yourself.

My favorite way to job search, however, is through the Bobcat CareerLink. The Bobcat CareerLink is a database of jobs created just for OU students and alumni. It’s super easy to use; you just put in your resume, your degree, and your GPA and you can apply for jobs with just one click. There are a ton of jobs, and you can even schedule interviews through the website.

I’m a little sad to be graduating this year, but I’m also really excited to be job-searching and working on starting the next part of my life. My home here in Athens will always be special to me, but I’m ready for something a little higher than my college student income, and I know my dog would love to have a yard to run around in! Luckily, the Russ College and Ohio University is helping me work toward that next step.

This project is so neat. I really feel like a programmer--starting from scratch, creating something that actually works and actually has a purpose. It’s tough work, and I’ve become extremely familiar with the rules of checkers, but this project has really shown me what it means to be a coder and create a product. This project has really reminded me of what’s fun in coding, and how much I enjoy building a finished product out of nothing but code.

For me, graduate school was the most desirable option; the idea of getting a desk job right away and developing software all day just didn't sound appealing. In a lot of my undergraduate courses, I seemed to really get excited about the material right at the end of the quarter, but the things I wanted to learn were out of the scope of undergrad courses. And with things like extracurricular activities, hanging out with friends, and getting the whole "college experience," there just wasn't time to delve into things outside of classes.

My interviewers at University of Rochester were impressed by the CS courses at OU when I told them what we had covered. They said I'd be well-prepared to start a graduate program. Yay! And fortunately, graduate students in CS often receive full tuition waivers and a stipend, as long as they help with research or teaching. Of course, the stipend is nowhere near the starting salary of someone with a bachelor's in CS, which is currently (according to this CNBC article) around $60,000. But it's worth it to me, since I'll be able to spend the time delving more deeply into things that interest me and I'll come out with an advanced degree.

After the PhD, which will be 5-6 years, who knows? At this point I like the idea of being a professor, but maybe by then an industry job will be more appealing. Either way, I'm grateful for the solid foundation that I've received at OU, and I will undoubtedly be back to visit the campus often!