In August 2019, I began my first year at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, Virginia. I originally came from a small town named Chase City, Virginia and graduated from Bluestone High School. When starting my freshman year in college, I already had college credits from dual enrollment which were college courses I took while I was in high school. These dual enrollment college credits transferred over to Old Dominion University and I was accredited to some courses to get me started. After my dual enrollment college credits were transferred, I was boosted up to a sophomore during my first year.  At first, my major was computer engineering and I had to take General Education courses that were required before taking courses that related to my actual major. During the first half of my first year, I took chemistry, math, visual arts, and public speaking courses. While taking these courses I manage to learn a lot especially in public speaking because I manage to improve my communication skills. Before coming to Old Dominion University, my communication skills needed some improvement because I was sort of shy and afraid to talk in front of a big audience. After having public speaking, I was able to speak in front of a group of people and it boosted my confidence a little at the end of that semester. Into the next semester, I was taking another chemistry, another math, French, and American literature course. Further into the semester, the COVID-19 pandemic began to happen. 

During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to get a job as a stocker for my local Roses Express. I worked at Roses Express for six months. Immediately after leaving Roses Express, I decided to get a telecommunication job working from home as a customer sales representative. The company that I worked for was named Alorica. The beneficial part of this job was that I got to choose my own shift hours during each week. While trying to work and do schoolwork at the same time throughout the week, I felt that I was able to manage both at the time. Going into my second year at ODU, I decided to do my courses from home. In the fall semester of my second year at ODU, I took a math, chemistry lab course, computer science, and an engineering course. As I was getting further into the fall semester, my work schedule was starting to outweigh my schoolwork due to an increase in my minimum requirement hours that I had to work throughout the week. I started to realize my grades in my math, computer science, and chemistry lab course were dropping, so I made the decision to work early morning shifts and that will give me an opportunity to get my homework done throughout the rest of the day. As a result, I did manage to get my grades back up at the end of the semester except for my computer science course. 

I began my spring semester of second year at ODU and I took math, my last chemistry and French courses I needed, retaked computer science, and an information research literacy course. When taking the information research literacy course, I improved and broadened my researching skills. I learned how to properly use keywords when searching for a topic and evaluate sources. During this semester, my job changed their company’s platform and decreased the hours that I had to work every week which gave me more time to do schoolwork. When I finished the semester, I managed to do well in all my courses, but there was one problem I was facing and that was falling behind according to my degree plan.

When I looked at my degree plan, I acknowledged that I had a lot of classes to go to graduate. It was like every time that I was passing my classes there was more to go. I felt like I was falling behind and I was wasting my time trying to pursue a degree in computer engineering. I also was going through a tough time with my job because of low demand volume reasons. I was feeling depressed, stressed, and did not know what to do next. I took it upon myself to call my advisor at the time to have a talk about my degree plan and where I was currently standing. During our conversation, he wanted to see what was going on with me and wanted to find a solution for me to get back on track academically. I asked him about the idea of changing my major. I told him about making the transition to cybersecurity. He thought it was a great idea and told me to contact the advisor of cybersecurity. He also told me to have a talk with my family about it first to make sure that this was the decision that I really wanted to make.

After speaking with my family about switching my major to cybersecurity, they agreed that would be a beneficial decision for me. I had a virtual meeting with the cybersecurity advisor and she helped me with registering for my classes for that upcoming fall semester. She explained to me that the courses that I took when I was majoring in computer engineering transferred over to my cybersecurity degree plan. This really helped me and narrowed down the list of classes that were required for my cybersecurity degree plan. The classes that I registered for my fall semester of my third year at ODU were cybersecurity introduction, philosophy, CYSE (cybersecurity, technology, and society, and IDS (interdisciplinary theory and concepts) course. I learned about the basic fundamentals of cybersecurity and improved a little bit on my writing skills in my philosophy course. During the fall semester of my third year of ODU, I quit my job for Alorica and was hired to work as a work from home data analyst for Telus International. This job was a good fit for me because it sort of went well with my major and I still had the ability to make my own work schedule. At the end of the fall semester, I passed all of my classes. This was a good starting point for me majoring in cybersecurity. 

In the spring semester of my third year at ODU, I registered for a cyber law, cybersecurity strategy and policy, literacy and research introduction, and cybersecurity technique operations course. I learned about the various cybersecurity policies and got the opportunity to do a hands-on lab experience within the cybersecurity technique operations course. I also was able to successfully manage between my job and school. I improved on my time management skills by planning out the amount of time I do schoolwork and regular work. As I was ending my third year at ODU, I managed to pass all my classes that whole year. I looked back at all I accomplished that whole year and where I was going within my majoring in cybersecurity. I felt that I made the right decision and that cybersecurity was where I meant to be. I was right on track with my degree plan. I knew for senior year I had to stay working hard to graduate by continuing to study hard, passing my courses, and finding a well fit internship. I see this reflective academic journey as accomplishment and that there is more success coming my way as long I continue to keep working for it.