Student: Amelia Hernandez

With a high school senior project looming, Amelia Hernandez asked her brother to teach her webpage building technology over a weekend. She emerged sleep-deprived but succeeded in creating a website and learning a new skill. She later attended a hackathon, sitting in on technology lectures and meeting students with similar interests.

Those experiences led her to East Carolina University, where Hernandez is a fourth-year student in the College of Engineering and Technology (CET), pursuing a bachelor’s degree in software engineering with a concentration in data science.

ECU student Amelia Hernandez sits with her laptop on the mall.

Both her older brothers work in the computer science field, and she grew up surrounded by technology.

“I never truly intended to start enjoying tech; I just wanted to get into a career path where I could make a lot of money to spend during my free time on things I actually did enjoy,” Hernandez said. “However, as I got more involved in tech on campus, I started to genuinely enjoy it, so here I am!”

Last year, Hernandez served as president of CET’s Women in Technology, and will be on the board this year. She will become chair of ECU’s chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery. And she is a student ambassador for ECU’s computer science department.

“I’m hoping to teach high school students about the huge variety of career options that this degree can give you since many people only think about computer science as a degree for those who want to be programmers,” Hernandez said.

One of her most meaningful experiences at ECU happened in the Innovation Design Lab (IDL). As a freshman, she joined the blockchain club, a small group of computer science students who met once a week to learn about blockchain technology, which records information digitally and makes it difficult for outsiders to hack.

The IDL contacted club members to work on a project to find the best blockchain technology for a produce company to meet a contract requirement with the world’s largest retailer. Hernandez became a leader on the blockchain team and helped recruit other students to work with additional clients.

“As a team, we did tons of research, consulted with companies, developed demo applications, and gave a bunch of presentations with the help of the IDL and our mentors,” she said. “Eventually, we found that there was not always a good blockchain solution on the market for the client companies we worked with for many reasons. We ended up coming up with our own idea for a product solution and began turning the blockchain team into a tech startup called HonestBlox.”

The IDL helped get the team into ECU’s I-Corps program and pitch competitions. In 2020, HonestBlox competed in ECU’s Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge, taking third place out of 124 teams.

“That experience was my first real taste of working in tech and business, rather than just studying it,” Hernandez said. “I think it was the first time I felt a real passion for tech — not just the money that comes with it. I got to set goals and lead a real team. I learned things that are impossible to learn in the classroom alone. I also think it was the biggest contributor to me getting my internship at IBM.”

Hernandez has been a product manager intern with IBM the past two summers. “It was an amazing experience that showed me the many moving parts that are involved in creating and offering a product in the tech world,” she said “It gave me a much more realistic view of what my future in tech can be. I highly recommend an internship to other ECU students who aren’t sure what they want to do with their degree, or know what they want to do but want to get a headstart now.”

At ECU, Hernandez serves as a mentor collective ambassador in CET, where she is matched with first- and second-year students.

“This has been impactful to me because I had such a hard time as a new student,” she said. “I had no idea how to study, I was terrified of asking anyone questions, and I didn’t know how to do simple things like ride the bus.”

But she turned things around after that first semester.

“Since then, I’ve learned many lessons — through failure — which put me in a very different situation,” she said. “Working as a mentor, I get to help teach other students those lessons I wish I had known while saving them all the failing classes. I’ve worked with mentees on big things like how to manage your time as well as with class registration and talked them through small things like how ECU’s bus system works.”

While the pandemic has been hard to navigate, she used the time at home to learn how to cook, pay taxes, drive and “all the other things that I definitely should have learned before but ‘never had the time,’” said Hernandez, who also is co-parenting a Mexican black kingsnake named Omen. “I’ve wanted one for years but worried I wouldn’t have time to care for it since I’m usually at school or work most of the day. This is no longer a problem thanks to COVID-19.”

What is something cool about ECU that you wish you knew during your first year? ECU has TONS of student organizations and programs that cover just about every topic you can think of. They hold events all the time so it’s a great idea to look through ECU’s Engage page for one that interests you and attend a meeting or two. Also, the school offers lots of free, helpful programs for students that are terribly underused since many people aren’t aware of them. For instance, the University Writing Center in the library will help you plan and write a killer essay. The Speech Communication Center will help you nail a speech or presentation. And, of course, the Pirate Academic Success Center offers free tutoring for your classes. Services like this are included in the tuition that you’re already paying to be here — so take advantage of them!