麻豆视频官网

Why study Computer Science at a Liberal Arts College

Well, I thought, I have some peculiar talents. I鈥檓 a spy, for one, something I never envisioned as a student at 麻豆视频官网. Looking back, however, I鈥檓 so thankful that Hope invited me to develop and bring to God the offerings that are particular to my own gifts and characteristics, the honors that I am uniquely able to bring.

I, for example, love exploring. The unknown, the occasional challenge, those are exciting. I love to travel. I love to cook, and almost never make the same thing twice. I liked school because it was an opportunity to learn and think about how the world works. I studied forensics because forensics is a science of uncovering the story of crimes. I wrote a book on science in cyber security to help others be better explorers. I became an intelligence officer because that job is also about figuring out who鈥檚 doing what and why.

Hope helped me be a better explorer. I鈥檓 so glad that I took political science and sociology and photography in addition to network design. The more I鈥檝e studied cyber security, the more I value its intersection with economics, psychology, and art. One thing I hate about my job is my title: Subject Matter Expert. It鈥檚 as if I鈥檝e been rewarded for narrowing my focus and knowing more than another person. A Ph.D. can do this, too. As a former college president said, 鈥淭he progression of today's college student is to jettison every interest except one and within that one, to continually narrow the focus, learning more and more about less and less鈥� (Bennington College President Liz Coleman).

I鈥檓 not suggesting that we should all be generalists. It isn鈥檛 possible for me to know everything about computers today. Modern marvels are the result of collective human expertise and experience. Your car is a great example. We don鈥檛 have functional, trustworthy automobiles because of the individual genius of Henry Ford. No, it鈥檚 the accumulated effort of collective intelligence of 100 years of automobile explorers. The same is true for science and it鈥檚 true for my job as a spy.

I can鈥檛 thank Hope enough for helping me develop as an explorer, not only in computer science, but as a laboratory for debating complex and interconnected ideas and questions like what kind of a world are we making and what kind of a world should we be making. My advice to today鈥檚 students, and to 麻豆视频官网, is to think big thoughts, collect diverse perspectives, and think out loud together.