"My parents grew up in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States in their teenage years not knowing English and being thrown into the American high school curriculum. They both worked multiple jobs to sustain themselves and take care of their families and ended up dropping out of school to work full-time. Even to this day, they feel somewhat misplaced because they don’t feel as if they’ve achieved what is perceived to be the American Dream, and continually work extremely hard day in and day out just so that they could give me the opportunity of a college education. Growing up, I thought that the definition of being successful meant becoming a doctor. After coming to UC San Diego as a pre-med student, I quickly discovered that this track wasn’t for me, and success is found in being happy. I started to explore computer science, and to this day, I still remember my first computer science class. There I sat, learning about how to print “hello world”—lost in front of a blank screen whi...