Computing My Way Through Life Yaotian Feng

A semicolon, and a brace there. Done! I hit the “Compile and Run” button, my first ever computer program has printed out the famous “Hello World.”

When I was ten years old, I found a book on “Windows” operating system from my parents’ bookshelves. I started reading it without knowing anything about what is "Windows." As I read the book, there were many experiments that I could “try it out,” and I did it one by one. Following the instruction and see the computer performs what I tell it to do felt like a had control over that powerful machine. It did not take long before I believed that I was ready for more challenging tasks: developing my programs. I had always wondered how are these programs I used were made, so I decided to learn about how to make my program. Since I completed my first “Hello World” program, I have been spending hours every day sitting in front of a computer experimenting with different programming languages and techniques. Trying out different and known things are inspiring to me as I can see how the machine reacts to my different commands.

As I came to the U.S. for high school, I had my first formal computer science class. Taking a course for the first time further confirmed my passion for computer science....