My name is Andres Hun, I am right now pursuing my Master in IS. Why Grace Hopper? Very easy question to answer in my opinion. I got to the UMSL family last fall when I started my IS Master, and I had the opportunity to talk with Nino, Mo, Nicole and Damon from the IS department about their previous experience at the Grace Hopper Conference, and just by listening to their stories, thoughts, and insights, my first thought was “I have to go to this thing next year” period.
Even though I am still extremely young, I have been in the US for almost 6 years now, and after some internships, and one full time job, I’ve come to the conclusion that having great relationships with other people (co-workers, other students, etc) is the best skill anyone can have. Yes, obviously being smart, hard working, etc are also very valuable skills, but for me at the end of the day it comes to: “wether you can or cannot” relate with other people, and that’s what the Grace Hopper conference is all about, to know and relate with other people in the IT field.
I also think the Grace Hopper will be an excellent opportunity to get up to date with all the new technologies, that the “big players” (FB, Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Google) between others, are using for their projects. I know we all are going to have the opportunity to go to events every day, and I think this would be extremely valuable to get all this information from really smart people.
And last but not least, I remember Prof. Boyd mentioning in the first meeting about students getting interviews while at the conference; obviously I am not attending the Grace Hopper conference thinking that I will find a job as an Engineer in Silicon Valley, that would never be my mindset, but at the same time I always think that you have to put yourself in a position so something like that (“being hire by Apple”) happens, and the Grace Conference is a great opportunity to say “why not me?” right?!
#UMSL #Information Systems #Hopper #Women in Technology #UMSL2GHC