Quawan Smith
BS Information Management and Technology '11
New York City
It is both a pleasure and honor having the opportunity to continue to be engaged with the ischool well after I graduate. My experience here at the ischool was nothing short of phenomenal. After just taking a few networking classes I knew I wanted to be where the technology was for my career. I continued to challenge myself and develop my technical expertise. But I was not alone. Since most of my professors had industry experience they guided me along the way.
Despite my challenging workload I was still able to be active in a number of organizations around campus. One of the organizations I joined junior year was BLISTS( Black and Latino Information Science and Technology Support) a professional organization here at the ischool. I later became president where I got the opportunity to meet recruiters from many fortune 500 companies and connect them with students for possible internship opportunities.
Through networking and my classes here at the ischool I was able to land an internship with JPMorgan Chase in their semester long internship program. It gave me the ability to get hands on experience while continuing to finish my course work. This experience led to a full time position with JPMorgan Chase working within their mainframe technology space.
Opportunity to explore my specific interest, hands on experience, and a professional network that will last a lifetime was all the things I was able to get here at the ischool. I would say the only thing harder than the challenging course work here at the ischool is when it is all over and it is time to depart.