Where did you grow up?
I was born in the Philippines, but moved to the United States before my second birthday and have lived in the Houston area since.
What high school did you attend?
I attended a small high school named Eastwood Academy with a graduating class of just over 100 students.
What was your favorite extracurricular activity in high school?
I enjoyed my time in the debate team high school and it was the school-sponsored activity that I spent the most time on. Unofficially, I also helped my mother, a math teacher at Eastwood Academy, with any algebra students that would come to her afterschool tutorials.
Why did you come to UT?
UT was the perfect mix of both comfort and unfamiliar that I wanted in a college. My high school and middle school were both extremely small in student body population and I wondered what it would feel like to attend an institution that had a large student body. At the same time, I felt comfortable in the quality of the education I would be receiving because many friends had already attended and spoke highly of the education they had received here.
Why are you majoring in CS?
When I was first introduced to programming in my AP Computer Science course in high school, I had a lot of fun thinking my way through and creating the pieces of a solution to a problem.
Why are you in this class?
I need a couple more upper division C S courses to graduate and I really enjoyed my time in both Software Engineering and Object-Oriented Programming underneath Professor Downing.
What are your expectations of this class?
I imagine that it will be similar to my experiences in Professor Downing’s two previous courses. I enjoyed my project assignments in the other two classes and I am curious to see what we will be asked to do in this one.
How much C++ do you already know?
I am confident in my ability to program in this course with C++, but I don’t view myself as an expert in the language by any means.
How much Javascript/Python/SQL/Web programming do you already know?
I am only really familiar with Python of those listed above.
How did you like the first lecture?
The first lecture went well. Professor Downing covers many of the same topics that he went through on the first day lectures in his other courses. The biggest change came in the new grading system that he has implemented for this class, something that I will need to revisit later on.
How did you feel about the cold calling?
In Software Engineering, I was a bit skeptical in the cold calling system. After taking two courses under Professor Downing, I honestly do not mind it and find that it can actually be useful to help explain things that I did not understand as well as I would have initially believed.
What made you happy this week?
I am a big baseball fan and I have been enjoying this year’s MLB season. It isn’t exclusive to this week, but it feels like everyday has something exciting happening around the league. Most recently, Jacob deGrom’s ERA fell to 0.62 and I can’t wait to see if he can keep it up for the rest of the season.
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
Dual-booting your computer is a great way to separate work and school from personal use. I feel like it makes me more productive to have a sterile environment free of distractions when I need to focus.
