Avery Niou graduated from San Francisco Bay University with her Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS) this past spring. Avery is multilingual: she speaks Mandarin, Taiwanese, English, and a bit of Japanese.
Avery was born and raised in Taiwan, but relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area two years ago. When speaking of the greatest challenge she has overcome thus far, Avery said, “I left my comfort zone where I grew up and a company I worked for six years. I decided to move to Silicon Valley without any family or friends, to pursue my dreams.”
When a friend of Avery’s landed a great position at a Silicon Valley company after earning a degree from San Francisco Bay University, she knew she would pursue her master's degree in Computer Science at SFBU. When asked what she enjoyed most about her experience while attending SFBU, Avery stated, “SFBU is a job hunting-oriented learning environment; new courses are constantly added to the curriculum based on the job market and current industry trends.”
Avery started her journey at SFBU with a passion for front-end software development, but hadn't yet obtained the knowledge and skills needed for the workforce. While taking a Computer Science course with Dr. Ken Cheung, JavaScript and Internet Programming, Avery's knowledge grew in this subject, pushing her further towards her goal of becoming a software engineer: “The projects from this course taught me so much. I was able to add them to my resume.” Other subjects that Avery studied during her time at SFBU include big data, cloud computing, and machine learning.
After earning her degree at San Francisco Bay University, Avery landed a job at PlayStation as a software engineer. When asked her definition of success, Avery stated, “I think success happens often, every time you achieve a small goal that is a success. Little successes accumulate to your life story.” Avery’s future goals include becoming a senior software engineer, exploring her passion further for front-end development, and enhancing her DevOps skills.
Congratulations and best wishes to Avery! Thank you for sharing your story with the San Francisco Bay University community.
