Current Career:

I am a Senior Graphic Designer and Photographer at Next Step, a digital design agency in San Francisco specializing in behavioral science.

Being in a pathway was great! The instructors were all very welcoming, always included everyone, made the lessons interesting and always gave individual attention when needed.

Although I did not pursue a path of engineering or similar career, a lot of what I learned helped me in my design career. Learning how to sketch in an isometric point of view, learning various tools, communication, teamwork, boosted my confidence, and tested my imagination by transferring my ideas out into the real world.

Aside from the academics and skills, it gave me a sense of camaraderie with my peers. I am still great friends with the people I went through the program with.

The entire engineering process is what made me choose my career pathway. Using my imagination to come up with a solution to a problem by sketching ideas, going through detailed iterations, building prototypes and testing, then ultimately end up with a finished, functional product. That entire process, and the feeling of accomplishment was super satisfying and is what intrigued me the most. I had a love for drawing and sketching so being a designer felt the most fitting for myself.

Current Career:

I am a partner at PwC, a global accounting firm, serving audit clients in technology and entertainment. I studied accounting for 2 years at Silver Creek High School and went on to UCLA, where I obtained a degree in International Economics. I have worked in San Jose, Slovakia and Los Angeles (where I currently reside). I am the Diversity Partner Champion of my team and promote diversity and inclusion initiatives both within PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) and on campus.

Current Career:

I’m working as a software engineer at Google. I work for Google Shopping on a team that handles the backend service for Google Express and Google Shopping on search. I started with computer science in high school and was immediately intrigued by how such simple problems such as building a calculator or simulating a game of tic tac toe could be summed up by a few lines of code. I liked the ability to control something like that just with the lines I wrote. I went on to study computer science in college where I learnt more about what it meant to study and to work in tech. That passion of solving difficult problems is what led me to work at such a big company that deals with these every single day. It’s so interesting to be able to recognize and solve problems that occur in the real world and actually make a difference in people’s lives.

Current Career:

I am currently a software engineer at Adobe working on critical commerce systems that allow customers to purchase and manage payment for Adobe product subscriptions. Aside from that, I run a virtual reality club within the office and participate in various engagements when I can including internal product testing and speaking panels with aspiring youth.

My first experience in computer science and software development was through my “Intro to Computer Science” class at EVHS, which reinforced my creative problem-solving passion and led me to subsequently take “AP Computer Science”. These courses and my wonderful teacher gave me a jump-start in the theory, tools, and creative applications of computer science and software development. With an early start and foundation, it was easier for me to dream about what I could create (both realistically and not-yet-realistically) in the future!

This early experience prepared me for subsequent college application decisions, and as a result, I then pursued and completed a B.S. Computer Science degree at Cal Poly SLO, where Adobe found me via an on-site career fair.

I have found that having access to and familiarity with the right resources can make a huge difference, so I’m excited to see what students will achieve with what’s available through the pathway today!

Current Career:

Finance/operations professional and part of the leadership team in a venture-backed start-up in the loyalty payments space. Former CEO of Insane Ink at Piedmont Hills High School. The business, marketing, management pathway at Piedmont Hills paved the path to my career today showing me the world of entrepreneurship, running a business, and working alongside people of different strengths and interests.

Current Career:

I am currently an undergrad student at UCLA studying computer science. I have received internship offers from Microsoft and Facebook and will be interning at Facebook next summer! I am also a research assistant for data science studies at UCLA Health’s Department of Human Genetics.

The Computer Science pathway at EVHS was my first introduction to programming and computer science. Taking my first computer science class in 11th grade, I struggled at first to keep up. But, I had a lot of supportive people around me. Now, I feel prepared for my college computer science courses.

The pathway also introduced me to great opportunities that I would have never known about before. One was the San Jose Works Summer Internship program, through which I worked with San Jose Digital Inclusion to close the Digital Divide. I am incredibly grateful for all the opportunities shown to me that allowed me to explore computer science outside of school.

Thank you to Mrs. Bhatnagar and ESUHSD for helping me discover and prepare myself for a career I am really excited to pursue!