What high school did you graduate from? Sandra Day O'Connor in Helotes, TX

What was your high school GPA? 3.43

What was is your current GPA? 3.41

What is your major? Computer Science

What are your plans for graduation? I just graduated December 12, 09 and am working as a Software Development Engineer in Test at Microsoft.

Scholarships : Microsoft Scholarship, George W. Brackenridge Foundation Scholarship

Accomplishments /Honors: Grace Hopper Conference in San Diego, CA, Dean's List College of Engineering '06 - Fall '09, Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Scholar, Chosen for International Research Event in Concepcion, Chile
Computer Science Internships:
• May '07 - May '08 Research Assistant at UTEP. Worked on algorithms to part of speech tag Spanglish neologisms.
• May '08 - Aug '08 Research Assistant at the Institute for Creative Technologies in California. Worked on Authoring Tools for Tactical Questioning Virtual Humans.
• May '09 - Aug '09 Software Development Engineer in Test at Microsoft in Washington. Worked on back-end tools that assist the Test Team in tracking server environment changes and testing environment variables.

Hobbies: Cooking, Kick-boxing, Hiking, Snowboarding, Board Games, Designing and building furniture

Fondest Memory of UTEP: Teamwork collaboration for my Software Engineering course. We worked long hours in the computer science building together. Through the experience we gained time management skills, communication, conflict resolution, technical skills and more.

Inspirational Motto/ Quote:"It's amazing to find how far you can go once you realize that you can." and "A triumph is only possible after a struggle." By Nicolle Whitman, March 11,2010

Why did you choose Computer Science? I signed up as a Computer Science major because I met a woman who had a degree and made Computer Science sound interesting. My first day of class I thought Computer Science was just "hacking a CIA database" or something, but I found it to be so much more. I decided to give Computer Science all of my effort and joined research groups, introduced myself to the faculty and got involved in Computer Science and Engineering events. Due to my passion and involvement, Computer Science has sent me to California, Chile, and Washington. I have landed a wonderful job at Microsoft where I work with people that I enjoy on projects that make me happy and it would've never been possible if I hadn't met that woman in 2006 who made me aware that this field even existed.