CUNY Tech Prep Ambassador Spotlight: Kevin Li

My excitement for CUNY Tech Prep (CTP) started the day I attended an information session on February 25, 2021. At that time, I was only been four weeks deep into the newly minted Data Science program at CUNY New York City College of Technology , and just started learning the ropes in Python. Not sure of what to expect from data science and where I would be in two years, I still applied. That day, CTP Career Coaches Lucy Samuels and Nicola Clements gave a compelling presentation of CTP’s offerings and an incredible resume workshop that sealed the deal for me. I was sold on the technical tracks, mock interviews with industry professionals, expert career coaching, and information on internship/job opportunities, because it spoke to me as a student who needed all those things.

Although I was uncertain about my odds of getting in, I was pleasantly surprised. That was thirteen months ago. Time is a funny thing, because it can seem longer or shorter depending on what’s happened in between.

The months flew by with?Zack Desario 's data science lessons,?Lucy’s career coaching,?Veronica Sirotic 's CTP ambassador meet-ups, and the numerous workshops/mock technical interviews that helped me shape up to be a better candidate for a tech career.

In a short 10 months, I went from my first Hello World Python script to presenting a complete full-stack web application created in Python/Flask and JavaScript/React with my teammate?David Charles ?for Demo Night.

Three more months after Demo Night, I passed an interview that landed me an internship at?one of CTP's employer partners, nuArch .

Looking back, those thirteen months seem like a tiny blip, but looking forward I can see it’s made all the difference in my future