Reflection

Intro

                  After what felt like four long years, I am finally preparing to graduate from Old Dominion University. When I first arrived at Old Dominion, I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to study or even do after completing my degree. I came here deciding to major in Business Management. After my freshman year ended, I realized I didn’t want to focus on a business-focused major and switched over to Cybersecurity. Behind this decision, all I knew was that I enjoyed technology, and it wasn’t business heavy. Ever since that decision to switch majors, I have not looked back once. Throughout my three years of taking cybersecurity classes, I have learned a lot of new skills related to technology and how certain things work behind the scenes of some computer aspects. From these same classes, I have gained knowledge and the understanding of the basics of the history and essential things needed to know within cybersecurity. On top of this, I joined the fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon. That has been the best decision I have made during my college experience. It has greatly helped me guide myself into a better man and a more efficient student in many aspects. One of my favorite things about SigEp is that through my newly found connections, I was able to find myself an internship in the field of technology by working hands-on and building computer servers at IPConfigure.

Program Reflection

                  Joining Sigma Phi Epsilon has probably given me the most and best experiences I have had at Old Dominion throughout my college journey. The whole process of joining a fraternity taught me very valuable lessons on time management and put me in a position where I was forced to have great time management in order to balance my schedule between the organization, classes, and maintaining our chapter wide 3.3+ GPA standard. Personality-wise, SigEp has allowed me to come out of my shell and become a more involved person around the community and within myself. Looking back, I have grown the most in my life in my three years of being a part of that organization than I have at any other point of my life. Of course, throughout those times of growing I went through some difficult times and faced some challenges.

                  During all four of my years at Old Dominion, I can confidently say that I faced my own challenges every single one of those years. Thankfully, I can say that I have overcome those challenges too and improved after each one of them. The biggest challenges I faced early on were my math classes. I’m not a strong numbers guys but after years of hard work and putting in extra tutoring hours I was able to escape before I fell too behind. I did have some time management problems too, I would get stressed out pretty easy between my classes, rushing a fraternity, getting a job, and maintaining a relationship. I had some hard times but for me the best thing I do in these situations is take a step back and take some deep breathes. Through all of these challenges ive faced I have learned to not let them hit you too hard and take it day by day. When facing a challenge or hard time its best to break it down and not try and face it all at once. That is what stresses you out when you try to handle it all at once instead of taking a step back, analyzing the reality of the situation, and then moving from there. My internship fit perfectly into my cybersecurity major. It allowed me to get my first hands-on experience with technology beyond textbooks and writing papers for classes. My internship has allowed me to get my foot into the real world of adulthood and has helped me show what my true priorities are in college. Facing all my challenges I now know how to handle them and figure out what’s important to me to succeed mentally, physically, and professionally.

IDS 493

As my journey is ending at college, it’s now time to find my first full time job. In order to help myself find one I have taken IDS 493. A course specifically designed for you to create a portfolio to show potential employers. This course is an asynchronous course with some guidance to lead you in the right direction of creating an e-portfolio that is easy to read, eye catching, and filled with your work and experience to show off your skills. The most valuable thing I have learned from taking this course is the simplicity of a portfolio. The whole point is to create something simple yet eye-catching. In my opinion you don’t need too much but you want it very organized and easy to follow. I think in my portfolio I did this great. I didn’t use any crazy fonts or try and mismatch things with loud colors. I would point out the neatness of my portfolio to someone if they asked. The only aspect that was challenging to me in this course was tacking it on last minute to graduate on top of my final semester classes. My previous work from other classes has helped me greatly for this course. The main part being that I already had a website made from a freshman year English course. Of course, on top of that, I have my old course work for a few classes already uploaded onto the website which made it easier for me to work with this late into my college career. I think over time, I can improve my portfolio with more experience and more specific skills as I gain them out in the work field.

Conclusion

                  Throughout this amazing and life changing journey of college I learned so many things from so many different people and experiences. This is the perfect example of interdisciplinary methods. Having people, courses, and experiences from all sorts of backgrounds has allowed me to look at things in a different way for everything I do. To this day I still think about my freshman year ethics class. His lesson on the Golden Mean is a connection that I make to almost everything in my life. Essentially the golden mean is finding the perfect balance between bad and good. The idea of doing what is right but not going overboard and being used or walked over while doing it. Being an interdisciplinary thinker in my field of study and every field of study is very crucial. It brings a whole new mind to the topic given. It brings people with backgrounds of new methods, experiences, and life lessons together to solve a problem. I might see something in the eyes of a younger college student while my boss doesn’t understand these new terms or methods of finding loopholes in systems. Cybersecurity is all about keeping things safe, and its’ important to have every single possible thought to light whether its dumb or not. After I graduate, I plan on working in technology to find what I truly enjoy within the field. Once I figure that out I plan on focusing primarily on that in order to become an expert at the newly enjoyed niche of work and be one of the best at it.