August 25, 2022

When Alisa Castillo ’25, a middle child from California with parents of Salvadorean and Nicaraguan descent, started taking computer science courses in her first year at Cornell, she already felt she had a lot to catch up on.

“I got to know people who came here with a lot of experience under their belt,” she said. “Some already worked on their own personal projects before coming and had years of experience knowing XYZ languages.”

Even though she did well in introductory programming classes, Oluwatise Alatise ’23 wasn’t sure she wanted to major in computer science.

“I wasn’t feeling confident in the work I was producing,” she said. “I wasn’t feeling confident in my skills, and began considering other majors I was more confident in pursuing.”