July 28, 2020—Victoria Cameron ’20 was an information technology and systems (ITS) major with a minor in computer science. Cameron, who hails from Yonkers, New York, graduated last spring with a job offer from computer manufacturer Lenovo. She is currently based at Lenovo’s headquarters in North Carolina as part of the company’s two- year Lenovo Accelerated Sales Rotational (LASR) Program.

In addition to managing a rigorous academic workload during her time at Marist, Cameron was also involved in a range of extracurricular activities. She hosted a radio show on WMAR with a friend, served as treasurer for the Black Student Union, and worked as a tour guide for the Admission office. Here, she shares her thoughts about choosing Marist, her education, and life as a young professional during an unprecedented time.

Coming to Marist

I’m the youngest of eight in my family. When I was in 9th grade I was going to open houses with my parents and older sister. Back then, I didn’t know what I wanted to study in college, but all those visits helped me to learn that I wanted a real strong community feeling and a campus that looked pretty. At Marist, I got both of those and every day I was there I woke up in a place I loved.

Of all the colleges I applied to and was accepted to, Marist really checked off all the boxes. I loved the campus, the ITS program was perfect for me, and I liked that Marist had a liberal arts focus–I didn’t want to go to a school where everything was 100 percent tech and engineering. 

Course of Study

I have a brother-in-law who works as an IT project manager and as a teenager, I enjoyed hearing about his work–website design, coding, planning and working with a team always sounded very appealing to me.

The ITS program at Marist was amazing and challenging. It exposed me to so many different aspects of the professional world plus, the coursework itself was enjoyable. In Donald Schwartz’s Database Management class one project called for creating a robust database about something we were interested in. I decided to create a database of information about the television show, “The Office.” I included any sort of trivia you could imagine, special awards, guest appearance, relationships between characters, and holiday episodes. I gathered information from all the seasons and organized it so it was searchable. Then, I set up the queries so users could ask their questions and get answers. It was a blast! I worked so hard on that project and the end result was incredible; people had a lot of fun using it.

For my capping project, I worked with the Shawangunk Scenic Byway Tourist Board to develop an online platform and mechanism for surveying locals and tourists about the services and features they would like to improve tourism to the area. The project was done collaboratively with economics students from SUNY New Paltz who would eventually analyze the results to make recommendations.

Career Services

The summer prior to my senior year I was an intern at Fidelity Investments in North Carolina. I was interested in their program for ITS students and wanted to see what North Carolina was like. It was great to work with other interns from around the country on various database projects. In addition to the project experience, we also met with employees to talk about their experiences and their advice for our career paths.

It was extremely helpful and when I came back for my senior year, I knew I wanted to move to the “Research Triangle” so I asked Career Services and my professors to help me figure that out.

Career Services was so helpful–even going back to my first year. They helped me learn to identify my strengths and identify skills I needed to improve on. Their interview preparation service was great because I was very nervous about going on interviews. Many of the internship and job opportunities in my field are competitive so you need to be prepared to do your best.

During my senior year, I accepted an offer from Lenovo in North Carolina for a position that has new hires rotate through a variety of divisions to see the full sales and implementation cycle. For me, it’s the best kind of job–a perfect fit and I’m very thankful for all the encouragement and support Marist showed me.

Advice to Marist Students

Having a supportive network is important–there are times when you’re going to get worried or angry and having people you trust and can talk to is a big help.

I think it’s very important for a college education to be well-rounded, and at Marist taking all the core courses ultimately helps to make you stronger and more diverse in your thinking. Not every college offers that the way Marist does. I love technology but I wanted to be more than that–and I wanted to have experiences and take classes that were outside my major.

At Marist you’re always being encouraged to join clubs and try new activities. I had the opportunity to learn effective public speaking and host a campus radio show with a friend.

Life as a Young Professional

In the last few months I moved, turned 22 in quarantine, and started my first business rotation with Lenovo. It is exciting and I can't wait to take all I am learning with me when I go on to become a Technical Client Advisor, which will happen upon completion of Lenovo’s two-year program. North Carolina is hot and, while I can't say whether I will miss Poughkeepsie winters, I do love a southern summer.

Growing up, faith was the foundation for much of my life and my family’s life. I think it was those early lessons that gave me the strength and perseverance to adjust and succeed in college and that is the same faith I am using now to make more of my dreams come true.