How IT came to me?

Stephanie Storck Class of 2008, Systems and Process Assurance Associate, PricewaterhouseCoopers - Washington, DC

Coming into Marquette I never considered Information Technology as a major. In fact, I had a guy friend who told me that his major was IT and I thought two things: 1) IT is for guys and even more specific, for very computer science oriented guys and 2) I thought to myself and wondered how many people actually are majoring in IT… couldn't be many. I look at my life now and cannot describe the last two years of it, without mentioning IT. I have graduated from Marquette University with majors in IT and Marketing. I am moving to Washington, D.C. to be and IT auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers in one month and this past semester I won the officer of the year award for my position as the President of the Information Technology Student Organization. Where did all of this IT come from? I will start the story from my sophomore year second semester.

As a sophomore, students are usually not allowed to take any upper level classes. However, because I had advanced placement credits from high school, I was able to take Introduction to Information Technology, which was considered a junior-level course. A girlfriend of mine told me to take Professor Ow, so I took her advice. During this class, I was paired with a group of myself and four guys. That was a plus. Then, we were given a project for a non-profit organization. It was really neat to see how our IT group could help Esperanza Unida so that they could focus and make a difference for others.

By the end of this class, I doing extremely well for the class and I started thinking more and more about IT. I told both my dad and boyfriend that Professor Ow told me I should double-major in IT. They both said it would be too hard for me and that's all it took! I declared IT as my second major right away. I did not have much technological knowledge going into my major. I knew a little bit about Access database, but I learned so much more through the assignments and projects. Through others such as mySQL, JavaScript, Visual Basic.net, PHP, and methodologies used in systems analysis and design, I totally feel confident in myself as an Information Technology graduate now.

I went into college initially with very little technological knowledge and came out doing exceptionally well in my IT major courses. I am confident that together with many of the female IT majors that have performed very well, were able to put a woman's face on the major of Information Technology. I saw many fellow female classmates taking on the IT role and it inspired me. I became motivated to make others feel the same way I did about IT and so I ran for the IT Club President.

My advice is for everyone to give the IT major a thought. It really could be for you, just like it was for me. I am an outgoing, motivated person and I could not have found a better outlet for all my talents. I have benefited and owe my success to the IT program and know that the program at Marquette will continue to grow from here. I will continue to look back and to support the various initiatives and endeavors because IT at Marquette has truly given me a place and meaning in life.

I don't think it was an accident that IT came to me, but if I could do things over, I would go to IT instead of it coming to me.