Above, Pepperdine students and Information Technology (IT) interns Daniel Lee, Timothy Chen, Charles DiRaddo, and Jackson Walker flash their signature efforts of a different kind after working on an updated version of the eSign application in 2023-24.
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Having each other to collaborate with was super helpful.
“We all had our own branches that we were working on,” DiRaddo noted. “I think it took quite a bit of time for us to wrap our heads around the collaborative aspect of GitHub.” “I think I did learn a lot,” said Lee. “I think teamwork, collaboration, and having a mentor to look up to was definitely something new. And I think all that is very beneficial for my future.” “I think one of the things about learning something new is just diving in and trying to figure things out myself,” said Chen. “That’s something that I haven’t really been able to practice that much in classes. But through this real-world experience, I was able to figure things out myself. I think it was great.
“Don’t be afraid to just try things out yourself,” Chen continued. “At the beginning, I was really hesitant to get my hands dirty, and I often relied on my mentor and relied on Dustin to help me out on certain things. But, I think as I progressed, I was able to learn that sometimes all it takes is a search or just trying something out that you think might work. And sometimes you’re actually right.”
“W
e really wanted to stick to the best way of doing things rather than using shortcuts,” Walker observed. “Sometimes, doing it the best way took a while to figure out, rather than just a simple band-aid that would have functionally been the same.” Such insight can prove to be the perfect complement to a skillset that includes problem-solving, patience, teamwork, and more. Those skills often provide a significant advantage when the time comes to transition from an academic internship to a professional career. As for the eSign project, it should be in production soon, and users will notice some marked improvements. “We’re hoping the big things that people will notice are our speed improvements, organization of the menus and the options, and just a more modern look and feel.” Luck noted of the project’s status. “This taught us patience,” Walker said. “There are a lot of ways where we could have cut corners, and we didn’t. We figured it out. We did it the right way.”
2024 IT Annual Review
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