A CS major in a Communication world
Previously on Roommates, classes, and perfect ramen:
TUWIC participated in the nationwide Sit With Me red chair campaign, the cold weather is gone for now, and Shivani and I participated in 3-day-startup where we created the company World Mentor with two other boys from our hall.
So the title of this blog may be a little misleading as I am not only a computer science major but also a communication major, but this semester I very much felt much more of a connection to CS than I did to COMM. Now I'm not sure if that is because there are just so many COMM majors and most of my intro class wasn't actually majors and my CS major is the absolute opposite, or if it is due to my Women and Technology communication class I am taking this semester.
I chose to take the upper-division COMM class because it was described to me as an intersection of computer science, entrepreneurship, and communication (everything I love, how could I pass it up?). And don't get me wrong, I have loved it, it makes me want to pursue everything we discuss. And it is taught by Dr. Henderson, and let me tell you if you even have an opportunity to take one of her classes TAKE IT.
But there were certain parts of the class that were a little hard for me to understand. For starters most people in the class were not computer science majors so when we had discussions I felt like there were a lot of misconceptions or generalizations made that I didn't agree with. I also found it very weird to be discussing things like he impostor syndrome or why young women leave CS while I was taking my intro to CS class and experiencing the very occurrences I learned about in W&T. Honestly, computer science is one of the hardest things I have every tried. It is like being dropped in a foreign country where you know nothing about the language and being asked to become fluent in it in about three days.
But while I was often conflicted about my feelings towards CS, I think my Women and Technology class actually helped me to stick with CS for at least one more semester. Instead of dropping the major like many young women do after one difficult semester, this class (and my advisor and really great upper classwomen role models) convinced me to stick the major out and move past feelings of discouragement or inferiority. This is not to say that a CS major is for everyone, however my comm class showed me just how few people really do know about coding and computational thinking. These skills are imperative if one hopes to work in the modern world or in any technology position, technical or non-technical. A CS major may not be for everyone, but some CS experience is one of the most important things an individual can gain. Check out our class website that has research, blog posts, interviews from lecturers, and more to help educate yourself about the current state of women in the technology industry!
- Grace
TUWIC participated in the nationwide Sit With Me red chair campaign, the cold weather is gone for now, and Shivani and I participated in 3-day-startup where we created the company World Mentor with two other boys from our hall.
So the title of this blog may be a little misleading as I am not only a computer science major but also a communication major, but this semester I very much felt much more of a connection to CS than I did to COMM. Now I'm not sure if that is because there are just so many COMM majors and most of my intro class wasn't actually majors and my CS major is the absolute opposite, or if it is due to my Women and Technology communication class I am taking this semester. I chose to take the upper-division COMM class because it was described to me as an intersection of computer science, entrepreneurship, and communication (everything I love, how could I pass it up?). And don't get me wrong, I have loved it, it makes me want to pursue everything we discuss. And it is taught by Dr. Henderson, and let me tell you if you even have an opportunity to take one of her classes TAKE IT.
But there were certain parts of the class that were a little hard for me to understand. For starters most people in the class were not computer science majors so when we had discussions I felt like there were a lot of misconceptions or generalizations made that I didn't agree with. I also found it very weird to be discussing things like he impostor syndrome or why young women leave CS while I was taking my intro to CS class and experiencing the very occurrences I learned about in W&T. Honestly, computer science is one of the hardest things I have every tried. It is like being dropped in a foreign country where you know nothing about the language and being asked to become fluent in it in about three days.
But while I was often conflicted about my feelings towards CS, I think my Women and Technology class actually helped me to stick with CS for at least one more semester. Instead of dropping the major like many young women do after one difficult semester, this class (and my advisor and really great upper classwomen role models) convinced me to stick the major out and move past feelings of discouragement or inferiority. This is not to say that a CS major is for everyone, however my comm class showed me just how few people really do know about coding and computational thinking. These skills are imperative if one hopes to work in the modern world or in any technology position, technical or non-technical. A CS major may not be for everyone, but some CS experience is one of the most important things an individual can gain. Check out our class website that has research, blog posts, interviews from lecturers, and more to help educate yourself about the current state of women in the technology industry!
- Grace
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