Tilo Garcia
Hard work and commitment are two traits that are essential to achieving great accomplishments. Tilo, a Code2College program alumnus and recent graduate of Hendrickson High School, has balanced a rigorous academic courseload, band, Code2College programming and an elite summer internship at Indeed.com.
“I’ve had an incredibly positive experience with Code2College over the past two yers,” shared Tilo. “From the mentors to my peers in the program, I felt as though it was okay to go outside of my comfort zone and experiment with a variety of concepts and frameworks, from professional development to coding.”
Tilo participated in the Code2College program during the 2017-18 school year and has been both an exemplary student and model for how hard work does pay off. Code2Code partners with a number of tech offices in Central Texas including Silicon Labs, Cloudera, Dell and Google just to name a few. These corporate partnerships can take many forms such as hosted workshops throughout the year to introduce students to unfamiliar STEM industries and equip students with valuable professionals skills like resume building, developing professional introductions and even refining interview skills. One of Tilo’s favorite workshops was with Google. “It was there that I got to learn more about the details of a technical interview and what this industry looks for in applicants.”
He also had the opportunity to interview for an internship with Indeed through our program. “I had a very pleasant interviewing experience. Everyone that I talked to was very kind and I felt as though everyone was there to support me through the process.” Tilo continued, “I began with brief talks regarding the values of the company, then transitioned to one-on-one interviews that included whiteboard code writing. I was even guided and encouraged to improve the methods of some of my functions, resulting in learning more effective techniques in a supportive way.”
Tilo was offered an internship with Indeed and went on to not only intern with them in the Summer of 2018 but was invited back to intern in the Summer of 2019 before he enters the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin as a Computer and Electrical Engineering double major. “I am most looking forward to joining the team at Indeed again this summer as well as transitioning into college and expanding my life experiences,” he shared.
When asked about his experience with Code2College, Tilo couldn’t express his excitement enough about the program. He shared, “Code2College is so important for the Austin Tech Landscape because it teaches high school students very practical skills as well providing a previously untapped market to potential employers.”
As far as giving back to his community, Tilo shared that once settled into college, he would love to be able to provide new Code2College students with tours around the campus to show them what the program can do and how it can prepare them for success.
We are so proud to have played a small role in Tilo’s success – he is truly a student to keep your eye on for the future!