Capstone Creativity and Career Prep: Navigating Ideas Without Losing My Mind

Part 1: Help Your Teammates to Develop Capstone Ideas

Our group shared several exciting capstone ideas that highlighted each member’s creativity and focus on solving everyday problems. I introduced concepts such as Video Educator, an AI-driven tool for generating short educational videos; What to Eat?, a personalized food suggestion app; and Lesgo, a smart travel itinerary planner. Arun presented thoughtful projects including an AI Interview Coach, a Campus Navigation App, and a Volunteer Tracker designed to support students and communities. Erin contributed engaging mobile app ideas like a group lunch voting system, a train delay tracker, and a Too Good To Go auto-purchase tool. I found it inspiring how our ideas all center around personalization, convenience, and user engagement. There’s a lot of potential to connect our shared themes—such as intelligent recommendations and everyday problem-solving—into a unified, collaborative capstone project.

Part 2: Keep Up With Your Learning Journal

This week’s activities offered a well-rounded mix of career preparation, technical review, and personal development. I learned how to create a strong cover letter and resume specifically tailored for a software engineering internship, which helped me better understand how to present my experience, skills, and goals in a clear and professional way. The Career Guide provided valuable insights on how to stand out in job applications and interviews, and how to align my career path with my interests in technology. One of the highlights this week was participating in a mock interview, where I learned helpful tricks such as maintaining confident body language and structuring technical responses clearly and effectively. These experiences gave me more confidence in preparing for real-world interviews and understanding employer expectations.

On the technical side, the Java programming refresher helped me revisit key concepts such as loops, inheritance, and object-oriented programming, which strengthened my foundation as I continue developing my coding skills. I also had a great time designing my ILP (Individual Learning Plan) Portfolio—it was fun to personalize the layout while showcasing my learning goals and achievements in a visual format.

I’ve only just begun this course, but it has already motivated me to stay committed and complete all the courses from start to finish. Creating the portfolio allowed me to look back on my progress and think about the direction I want to take next in my computer science journey. Overall, this week emphasized the value of ongoing learning, self-reflection, and preparation as I pursue future internship opportunities and career goals.

Comments

Confessions of a Chronically Confused Note-Taker

Part 1: Review and Reflect Learning Strategy One of my strengths is making and revising a study schedule. I am good at planning my time and organizing my tasks, which helps me stay on track. I also do well at finding the main idea and important details when I read. This skill helps me understand the most important parts of the material. However, I need to improve in a few areas. Taking notes is hard for me because sometimes I write too much or miss key points. I also struggle with outlining textbooks since I am not always sure what to include. Another challenge for me is answering multiple-choice questions. Sometimes I overthink the answers and doubt myself. Part 2: Preview Time Management Skills Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KNpOCEeEtB0whGXmduCl-BP1txBSaqMnxBG3fvfV-AE/edit?usp=sharing Part 3: Project Management Basics I watched three videos about project management. They helped me understand important concepts. The first video was about the basics of project man...

Balancing Beaches and Bytes: My Week 1 in the CS Online Program

Before the first week of my CS Online course started, I was happy to connect with my teammates early. I really enjoyed working with them. We shared ideas, created designs, and had fun being creative together. It was a great start, and working as a team helped us a lot. To be honest, when Week 1 of the course started, I was in Hawaii on vacation with my family. It’s not a usual way to begin a new class. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. This course is very important to me because it helps me prepare for my future, and I didn’t want to fall behind. But at the same time, I knew that spending time with my family and making special memories in Hawaii was also important. So, I gave myself a challenge: Can I enjoy the vacation and still keep up with my school work? Here's a photo taken from my drone. I’m really happy with how this course is set up . It has both group work and individual assignments. I enjoy working on my own because I can focus, but I also like working w...

Tourist by Day, Techie by Passion: My Week 4 Snapshot

My educational goal in the Computer Science program is to become a skilled software engineer who can design and build innovative, efficient software solutions using both strong programming skills and AI tools responsibly. I want to complete my degree with a solid understanding of core computer science principles, such as algorithms, data structures, and system design, so I can solve complex problems without relying only on AI. After graduation, I aim to work on projects that improve people’s lives by combining creativity and technology, constantly learning new skills to stay ahead in the fast-changing tech world. This goal excites me because I see myself growing as a confident, adaptable developer who uses both traditional knowledge and AI to create a meaningful impact. My career goal is to be a software engineer who makes intelligent and helpful technology for people. I want to work at a company that uses AI and new tools carefully and responsibly. I want to grow as a leader who helps...

My CS Online Journey

Search This Blog