Jim Cason - Computer Science Grad
After all, isn't that what college is about — cutting through the flash and fog to prepare students for the “real world”? Now employed as a full-time software engineer for OMEN Inc., a government contracting company, Jim attributes much of his success to Geneva’s careful focus on giving students this type of preparation. “My senior project and research project gave me two very different dynamics of real-world programming situations,” he says, describing the combination as enjoyable but tough. “On one I was working as part of a team and had others to ask questions and get advice; I had weekly status meetings, deadlines, assignments and group work. On the other I was by myself. I had to do my own research, answer my own questions and use different resources in order to meet deadlines. It was the perfect way to simulate the working world.” Jim began his undergraduate education at a technical school but transferred to Geneva after two years. One difference he experienced was the amount of coding performed by students. “I did less coding at Geneva,” he says, “but I learned a lot more about the application of computer languages to theoretical situations, as well as memory management, system efficiency, clean coding and networking.” There were spiritual differences between the schools as well. All of Geneva’s computer science majors take a course in computer ethics where they discuss how scripture applies specifically to programming situations. “Nowhere in the Bible does it say, ‘Thou shalt not use programming to hack into another user’s computer,’” says Jim. “But applications of scripture can be applied to stealing someone’s identity, stealing someone’s work, unlawfully downloading media and many other situations.” A third, but by no means final, aspect that distinguished Geneva was the intimate professor-student interaction. “Even now when I visit Geneva, a year after graduating, the professors still know my name, assignments I've turned in, and classes that I took from them.” - by Brooke Prokopchak ('08)
Jim Cason is originally from Johnson City, N.Y. He graduated in May of 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and is now living in Odenton, Md., where he is employed as a full-time software engineer. He hopes to dig deeper into program development and to someday be a godly husband and father.
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If only every college graduate could say what Jim Cason has said in summing up his experience in the computer science program at Geneva: “They removed the illusions and gave us reality.”
