Name: Ivy Brundege

Colleges: College of Engineering and College of Science

Majors: Computer Science and Computational Neuroscience

Hometown: Nederland, Colorado

Plans after graduation: Pursuing a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University starting in August

Favorite Hokie memory: “Spring break with Outdoor Club last year! We travelled down to Damascus for a week to do some work on the Appalachian Trail after damage from the hurricane. Lots of digging and moving trees, staying in cabins in the area, cooking meals with everyone, and swimming in the creek.”

 

When Department of Computer Science Outstanding Senior Ivy Brundege arrived at Virginia Tech, she loved science and math and wanted a degree that would open doors. Then came the first day of computer science class.

“The guy next to me was already coding something,” Brundege said. “In hindsight, it probably was not that big of a deal, but I did not know what I was doing at all. And it looked like he was building the next Google.”

Brundege’s experiences with computers were limited to a coding camp in elementary school and a high school–issued Chromebook. Meanwhile, the students around her were debating programming languages and discussing concepts that felt entirely unfamiliar.

“I decided at that point, I have got to get out,” she said. “This is not for me.”

But then her first computer science instructor, Allyson Senger, said something that stayed with her.

“This is hard,” Senger said to the class. “If you do not get it right away, that is normal.”

As a student, Senger said she had the same doubts that Brundege did.

“That is how I was in my first programming class,” Senger said. “I was thinking that I had no idea what was going on.”

Today, Senger stresses to students that her class is designed for beginners. What matters, she tells them, is putting in the work to learn and practice.

With support from Department of Computer Science faculty members, including Senger and Collegiate Associate Professor Sally Hamouda, Brundege gradually built confidence.

“By the end of freshman year, I decided I was not going to switch out of computer science,” Brundege said.