Meet Pre-Apprenticeship Graduate:
Gary Hoang
Computing for All Pre-Apprenticeship graduate Gary Hoang was interviewed as part of our Student Spotlight series on our website and is also featured in our student highlight series on LinkedIn. Gary was the first of his family to be born in this country. Born into a low-income, non-English-speaking family without many resources, he says it was challenging to grow up in Seattle where the cost of living is so high.
Gary: I was the first person in my family to go through the education system in the United States. It was challenging as I had few resources to support me and had to figure out how to navigate my own learning pathway through the education system. I spent countless hours in high school and public libraries studying and checking out books as I never had the money to buy my own books or work with a tutor to get help if I was struggling with a subject. My life was challenging, and as I struggled to define myself during my teen years, I learned I had to accept the cards I was dealt and work very hard with the resources available to me to achieve success.
Because housing costs kept going up, my family had to move three times during my high school years, so I went to three different high schools, each time having to seek out new resources and form new friendships. I graduated from Chief Sealth International High School. One of the poorer schools in Seattle, Sealth doesn’t offer any computer science classes. I did gain a lot from the teachers there though, and when I was writing my application to the University of Washington, I got a lot of help from my English teacher when writing my personal statement. I believe that the strength of the resultant personal statement helped me gain entry into the Paul Allen School of Science at the University of Washington, so I am very grateful for my teacher’s help! My life experience has taught me that even if you have very little, you can use whatever resources are available to you to build a brighter future.
I had to learn computer science on my own, so when I came to the University of Washington it was a struggle to work through the challenging classes I was faced with. The primary computer language I learned at UW is Java. The curricula offered a lot of math, logic, and algorithms, but without the code. They would show you a demo of an algorithm, but you had to come up with the code by yourself to carry out the assignment. You really need to learn to code the concepts they teach on your own, so I had to find my own resources to learn coding.
I came to the Computing for All Pre-Apprenticeship program through the SYEP (Seattle Youth Employment Project) to learn how to use basic computer languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build a hands-on, team-based project. Working with my peers on a software project was an incredibly valuable experience. Learning how other people think on a team and learning from peers to problem solve was fundamentally important. It was exciting and gratifying to work with a team on a project like the website we built, and I felt like it has better prepared me to work in the tech industry. Coding in a team setting and learning from peers as well as teachers was awesome. In the past, I have struggled with confidence when giving presentations, especially with technical projects. Using the PowerPoint template provided by Computing for All to organize my presentation thinking and flow has helped me grow my confidence and work with my team to deliver a good, cogent presentation.
I completed the CFA Pre-Apprenticeship this spring and am wrapping up finals for my junior year at the University of Washington. I heard about a tech internship at CGI (a Canadian-based tech company) this summer from one of my computer science UW friends and applied for the position. I was subsequently hired as a software development intern and will work with a team of developers for one of CGI’s clients! I was excited to learn that the CGI client I will be working for this summer is the Washington State Department of Transportation. It’s gratifying to work with a public sector organization that serves my community and I know I will learn a lot. Many thanks to CFA and all who have helped me along the way!