The five alumni present helped me gain different perspectives on how CSP and CSA have helped people going into other majors, like Mabel and Allison. Hearing about a Cognitive science major made me realize that while Computer science is a competitive major I can still utilize the concepts I learned in these AP classes and apply them to a topic I am interested in. For example, I enjoy tutoring, so I could use my development and teamwork skills I have gained from PBL coding to create a space that helps others learn about topics they are interested in. Also, all of the alumni emphasized the importance of trying to stay motivated when coding and not comparing yourself to others because everyone is on their own path, but will eventually reach the same place when the effort is put in. This resonated with me because at the beginning of CSP I was not motivated to learn concepts and I was only interested in the points, but as I began to actually try to understand the topics the class became more interesting, and I was able to take away more from the assignments we were given.

Hearing about the real-life applications of PBL coding in jobs or internships was enlightening, as I thought that PBL was only related to our AP courses and in our classroom, but Colin explained how scrum teams are used and how good teamwork is key when applying for internships and jobs. I am glad that we are given the opportunity to hone our skills in a flexible, collaborative environment instead of being surprised in a corporate setting where we are expected to work in teams. When asked if Computer science is used in other majors the alumni responded with specific examples of how to incorporate computer science knowledge into other subjects. As someone who is interested in learning computer science but not sure if they want to major in it, I was excited to hear how coding can be used to optimize my time for other subjects, like using Jupyter lab for papers and creating code for advanced calculations. These examples have shown me the use of the assignments we are doing beyond just for the AP test.