Cayden Renich

FYE 101

10/3/17

College Experience

It should be no surprise that clubs are an integral part of the college experience .

The enable you to try new things, meet new people, and gain experiences and

opportunities that you might not have had prior to entering college . These clubs can be

sorted into two categories: co-curricular and extracurricular. Co-curricular activities help

you develop skills and ideas that you learn in your classes , while extracurricular

activities are separate from the realm of your classroom learning . It is possible to

network in extracurricular activities, but extracurricular activities are more reliable when

used as stress relief. For example, I am part of the Humans vs Zombies club and I

have attended meetings of the Dagorhir club . I find it almost unbelievable how cathartic

it is to shoot at people with nerf guns and bash people with swords, although I have not

been able to attend meetings regularly. On the other hand, co-curriculars are useful in

that they can help reinforce what you learn in class , and even help you network by

meeting people who are actively in fields you are interested in pursuing . Of course,

these are all secondary to actual schoolwork, which I have found monopolizing my time.

I intend on joining the Cyber Defense Team, the Retriever Robotics Club, and the Game

Development Club as co-curricular activities. Cybersecurity , robotics, and game

development are all fields I am interested in , and I am very glad to have the opportunity

to learn more about them before I commit to one.

The Cyber Defense Team, or Cyber Dawgs, is the UMBC cybersecurity club.

Cybersecurity as a field is one of the largest growing fields that exists today, and

provides incredible job security and very high pay. That should be no surprise,

considering how reliant society is on the Internet . Things like online banking, social

media, online shopping, and smartphones are just a few examples of the continuously

growing scope of things cybersecurity experts protect from malicious hacking . I also

enjoy friendly competition, and the Cyber Dawgs participate in and have even won

several cybersecurity related competitions. I am very excited for this opportunity to

learn more about an interesting and lucrative field where I can apply skills I am honing

in CMSC 201. I have not had the chance to attend a meeting yet, but I am looking to

put time aside early next month to see how and when I can join the club.

The Retriever Robotics Club is another co-curricular activity I am very interested

in. Robots are really interesting and there is an artistic part of the field , which is

something I find particularly enticing. Society is becoming more reliant on robots as

time goes on. From speeding up assembly lines with robotic workers to safer roads

from self-driving cars to self-delivering packages with drones . If a human can give

clear, absolute instructions, a robot can do it better, faster, and safer than any human

ever could. Fortunately for me, those clear, absolute directions are exactly where an
aspiring computer programmer like myself shines. A robot simply cannot work without

programming, so the connection to a course that teaches computer programming, such

as CMSC 201, and to a computer science major is very clear and very exciting. Like

with the Cyber Dawgs, I have not found time to attend any Retriever Robotics Club

meetings. Additionally, I am less interested in this club than I am in Cyber Dawgs, so it

is possible that I will not attend any of their meetings this semester.

Game Development Club is particularly exciting for me . I really enjoy playing

video games, I love the creative elements that go into them , I enjoy telling stories and

expressing myself creatively, and I feel very at home in the field of computer science

and software engineering. Because of this perfect overlap , video games are the ideal

medium for my own type of storytelling, and I love building them. I have had several

game design projects over the years, though never with a team of developers like I

would in a job in game development. Although the jobs are often not as lucrative as

cybersecurity, it is a field that I can see myself pursuing. While I could continue to

pursue this interest without the Game Development Club , I would miss out on

networking opportunities that could arise while working with other aspiring game

developers.