My parents escaped Vietnam by boat to make their way to America. Like many, they wanted the American Dream. They wanted to have better opportunities and a better life for their children. Throughout my life, my parents would tell me stories of the hard times they had went through living in Vietnam. At times they wouldn’t have enough to eat or even had shoes to wear. They didn’t get to finish school because they had to leave to help support their families. Knowing that, it was a reminder for me to never take school for granted or anything that I had for granted. I never wanted to disappoint my parents because I know the hardships that they had gone through and sacrifices they had made for my brother and I to be able to live a good life. I chose to pursue Computer Science. When I took my first programming class, right away I was intimidated because males dominated the class. I was 1 out of 2 girls in that class. When we began our first code, “Hello World”, I was fascinated by the coding language and my capabilities. I still remember the excitement that I felt and it made me realized this was the where I belonged. It was something that I want to continue doing and I wasn’t intimated anymore. At times, I did struggle but because I enjoyed coding so much I didn’t quit. I kept doing the best that I could. A goal of mine is to teach young kids how to code because I want to be apart of providing kids the experience of coding that I didn’t get to experience as a kid. I want to see their excitement that I felt when I first experienced coding. I would like to teach kids how to make their own websites to explore their own creativity. I feel that coding is a way that can help you learn skills like problem solving, communication, creativity, and many more. We are surrounded by technology and technology is constantly evolving, so I believe that we should know and understand how it works. Programming is the language of now and the future.
