Description: Going over my experience touring Harrisburg University of Science and Technology and attending a career exploration.
Touring Harrisburg University of Science and Technology
Harrisburg University of Science and Technology (aka HU) is a college near the capital and it offers many STEM opportunities and classes to its students. My WEB teacher was taking us there to tour the school. I was excited to go as it had already been on my list of schools to reach within my area and I was happily surprised. Firstly, the school was gorgeous. I live in the suburbs so buildings more than four stories tall are something I’m not used to, but these schools and probably 30, maybe more, and even though we were only on the 11th floor, the view was amazing. I got to see over the top of many of the surrounding buildings and they were these comfortable chairs in front of the windows that seemed like the perfect place to study. Aside from the aesthetic of the building, my class and I had gone to this college to attend career exploration for IT and WEB-related jobs and insight.
Cyber Security
One of the cool things we got to do while touring Harrisburg University was participate in a cybersecurity activity in one of the classrooms, which was very exciting for me as the cybersecurity field is what I want to go to college for. It was a lot of fun. We had a bunch of different codes we had to crack while trying to figure out where the security breach took place. My team won second place while being one one coin behind the first place winners. The coordinators of this activity, as it turned out, were also part of a free courses program called NuPath. I had tried to sign up for one of their classes before but it was, unfortunately, canceled, but with them being there, I got to get more information about why the class was canceled and was able to gather that they offer a free cybersecurity course to adults. All in all, it was a very informative time and I got to make connections with people I may not have otherwise had, which is important if you want to excel in the WEB industry.
Interesting Features
One of the coolest features HU let us see was a massive 3d printer that was big enough for you to stand in and print with metal. Metal! I didn’t know a 3d printer could do that! The tour guide even mentioned that sometimes the medical student prints 3d models of organs. Another place we got to visit was a forensic lab that they had. While personally, I wasn’t as excited about it, the tour guide mentioned that this was a good elective to take if you are interested in things like cybersecurity as they do a forensic analysis of security problems as well. Another cool feature that was shown to us was this complex server room. We weren’t allowed to stay long because, as it turns, out, servers are extremely loud, but I still got to take a picture of a small server that had been taken apart for us.
What I gained from the experience
Aside from plenty of new knowledge from the tour, the best thing I gained from the experience was connections. I got to speak to not only one but two IT companies that were interested in hiring interns at my age, which if you didn’t start young in the WEB development or IT world, is very rare. Most companies are looking for people who already have a bit more experience to them, so the fact that these companies were impressed enough with me to give me their cards was incredible. I have plans to contact them once I get some information from the school about possibly co-oping with them, but that’s still up in the air. Altogether, this trip was an amazing opportunity that I won’t soon forget. I had a fantastic time and got to introduce myself to possibly my future boss. I’m excited to take the opportunities that I have been granted and use them to get ahead in my field.