If you would have come up to high school Keilani and told her, “Oh by the way, you go to USC after high school for Computer Science and Business Administration, also you’re in like, four different student publications!”, she would have told you, “Why? I do not understand anything you just said. Also, who are you?”
A young Keilani had been writing since day one as her primary creative outlet for most of her life. Starting in elementary school, she would write story books and include mediocre illustrations alongside them (be nice to her, she was 8), even going as far as to write a mystery about her entire class in fourth grade that her math teacher at the time would read out loud to students.
So, when asked what she wanted to pursue as a career at the ripe age of 14 (you know, when everyone is expected to know the answer to that extremely loaded question), she thought she wanted to be an author and pursue writing full time. It was either that or music performance since she had been active in her middle school and high school Honors String Orchestras as a violist. Deciding the latter was not all that practical, she settled for writing as her first choice.
It was not until senior year that she was confronted with the question again, except this time it was more important because it involved choosing a major for college. Having been introduced to CS at this point in her life and the applications it has with her passions (such as music, audio engineering/design, and video games), she envisioned herself sitting behind several monitors for the rest of her life and getting a fat paycheck out of it. Writing was no longer on the radar because she was more absorbed with her passions in high school (music and CS). With that being said, she was never involved with her high school student publication, so why now is she taking on CS with a passion for journalism instead?
The answer is simple: she was able to align her CS skills into an applied setting (again) and reignite her passion for writing and editing. Through her involvement in student publications at USC, she explores web development and data for journalism and editing science-focused articles. The convenience of getting involved with these organizations (Daily Trojan, Annenberg Media, The Nucleus, and SCene Magazine), the skills at each group’s disposal, and the people that make it possible are truly what make her excited not just for her current studies, but also for her future career. She is considering pursuing a Master of Science in Communication Data Science as a result. Inevitably, she will find the next thing to align her passions with in CS. Only time will tell when that will be.
