Kaz Henderson
801 Heron Drive
Silver Spring, MD 20901
May 11, 2025
Sydney Sharpstene
7751 Alumni Drive, Office 2200
College Park, MD, 20742
Dear Professor Sharpstene:
Over the years, I have spent countless hours learning about computer science. My interest
in computer science began in 6th grade, when I joined a magnet program at my middle
school, and we began learning about Python. From there on out, I remained dedicated
towards the field as I learned about the fundamentals of web development,
object-oriented programming, and more. In high school, this was taken a step further by
the STEM program I was enrolled in. This program offered a variety of interesting
electives, like computer networking and computational methods, that kept me engaged
with the subject. Fast forward to college, and I have taken a variety of courses on the
Machine Learning track, including Organization of Programming Languages, Data Science,
and Computer Architecture, among others. I have developed a proficiency in many
languages such as Python, Java, C, and OCaml, as well as different libraries like Pandas,
Matplotlib, and TensorFlow.
I believe there are a few important traits that I wanted to demonstrate in my ePortfolio.
The first trait was creativity; I am full of original ideas, and am always looking for a way to
put a personal spin into whatever I am working on. This often results in more effort and
passion placed into a project from me than others. I believe that I demonstrated this in my
artifact #3, which was an entirely original idea that my friends and I created in a few days.
We believe this product could become a legitimate success, and I think this type of
entrepreneurship was shown in my portfolio. Another trait I wanted to show was
well-roundedness; I believe that someone who has skills in a variety of areas is a far more
valuable asset to a company. Furthermore, jobs are not always secure, and by specializing
too much one could limit their opportunities. As a result, for my coding artifacts I aimed to
show a variety of different abilities, from knowing how to code in assembly, to knowledge
of fuundmental algorithms like Dijkstra’s and Kruskal’s algorithms, to knowing how
compilers work, etc. I believe the variety of projects I chose (no two projects are from the
same class) helped accomplish this. The last trait was strong writing ability, as this is
central to many jobs including computer science jobs. For example, I am interested in data
science, and data scientists have to write lengthy reports all the time. So, for my last
artifact I included a paper I wrote in a Shakespeare class last semester. I believe the
subject matter and ideas I had to formulate here were more complicated
(comprehension-wise) than anything I would have to do for computer science, so I think
this paper should suffice to show my skills.
There are a few traits and skills I have that make me stand out from others in the field. For
one is my knowledge of mathematics. I am double majoring in both computer science and
mathematics, and my knowledge of math has given me a leg up on other students. Math is
the bedrock for computer science, and learning about topics such as algorithms has been
made far easier with my math knowledge. I think my ability to pick up skills quickly and
willingness to learn is an important quality of mine. This is reflected in the jobs I have held,
such as working at a cook at the Yahentemitsi Dining Hall or as a Community Assistant at
South Campus Commons, which required learning on the job, or my research in the
Gemstone program at UMD, which required constant gathering of information, without
much instruction on what to do. These also emphasize how I am a great team player and
communicator, which is massively important when working as a part of a computer
science unit working toward a common goal.
The main pitfall of my experience with coding thus far has been that I do not do it much in
my free time. I have a lot of coursework to do, so I am often uninterested in doing more
work in my free time. However, it is clear that if I want to work in the industry, I have to
start coding in my free time, working on projects to bolster my resume. This has not been
something I have really done in my first two years of college, so this summer I plan on
coding a lot and expanding my expertise as much as possible. Whether it be watching
YouTube videos to pick up new skills, or working on projects for the sake of building
something new, I aim to be even more dedicated to the field and become as good of a
programmer as I possibly can.
Sincerely,
Kaz Henderson
