Describe your post-Covenant journey so far.
Post Covenant, I spent four years at Grove City College alongside other inestimable Covenant graduates and faculty. I studied computer science at GCC which has since been put to good use at Bentley Systems, a global software company with an office in Philadelphia. I met my wife Jasmine during my last college semester and we now reside in Lancaster city with our two children (Geneva and Matthew). We are members at Crossway church in Millersville.

I stumbled into the field of software development through an interest in math and science in high school in addition to an unhealthy curiosity in computers from the day my parents bought one in 1999. Computer science seemed to be a good fit as there were good job prospects, and it would allow me to indulge (channel?) my curiosity and tinkering. That major turned into a job right out of school and five years later, I’m still enjoying it.

While I’m often tempted to view my career in software merely as a means to an end of providing for my family and their future welfare, I’m grateful for the privilege of working for a company that is doing valuable and meaningful work in the vast world of infrastructure and construction. While I don’t have huge plans to start my own software company some day, I love the opportunities that being a programmer opens up on the individual level, whether that’s helping someone automate a mindless task, setting up a website for their business, or making mobile apps for personal use for the fun of creating something interesting and learning something new. I would love to teach programming at some point (and definitely to all of our kids). Learning to program a computer forces you to learn a whole host of other valuable skills including abstract thinking, logical reasoning, and basic problem and puzzle solving skills that are applicable in many other spheres.

Many people believe that a classical education only prepares students to continue studying the liberal arts.  How did Covenant’s liberal arts education prepare you for the field of computer science?
One of the trends that worry me most in higher education is the increasing isolation and specialization of disciplines, whether they are scientific, literary or otherwise. While specialization has many benefits, there is a real danger when specialists are unable to dialog with those outside their discipline who, while by no means experts, may have something very important to contribute. Fallible humanity is shot through with disciplinary, generational, and individual blind spots. From a purely utilitarian perspective, studying the liberal arts, multiple disciplines, and especially history can go a long way in remedying this sense of tunnel vision and arrogance that can be observed in higher levels of academia and almost any specialist domain.

For example, as a Christian in the world of software, it is often quite jarring to see the messianic attitudes coming out of Silicon Valley and the world of software more generally. While software and technology can be useful tools when used well, there are real dangers inherent in the mediums we are creating and the speed at which they are being sold to a mostly unwitting public. How can we escape the bubble we live in and gain a better perspective on our current moment? I would argue that a broad liberal arts education serves as the best foundation for approaching these complex and pressing issues.

Perhaps most importantly for me, Covenant helped to instill in me a love for learning. An education that orients students towards what is good, true, and beautiful at the expense of less time spent on technical training and college preparation is a winning move in the grand scheme.

What is one of your favorite memories from your time at Covenant?
Some of my best memories are from overnight backpacking trips on the Appalachian Trail with faculty and fellow students. I also have very fond memories of David Kemper’s 8th grade literature and history classes discussing Greek and Roman society.

What are you most thankful for about Covenant?
Covenant (the faculty and my fellow students) pushed me harder than I would have pushed myself, left to my own devices. But they were not harsh taskmasters. Learning was a (mostly) pleasurable experience with my three classmates and wonderful teachers.