Growing Confidence – and a Career

Like many children who grew up in the early 2010s, Jedrik “Jed” Corpuz ‘24 loved gaming. In fact, when Corpuz was about 10 years old, he “begged” his mother to enroll him in a Java programming class so that he could make modifications to his favorite game, Minecraft. That experience as an elementary school student informed what came next for Corpuz. The Boston, Mass., native earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the College and is now pursuing a master’s degree in the discipline through Le Moyne’s partnership with Syracuse University. His aim is to one day work in the computer science field, developing, designing and maintaining the software that people rely on daily.

Corpuz knows that, in order to achieve that aim, it will be critical for him to gain a wealth of practical experience. To that end, he recently served as an intern for Nationwide Insurance, where he was assigned to the Fortune 100 company’s Automated Response Team. What made the experience particularly valuable was that, rather than being assigned to a single, specific role, Corpuz was able to focus on what is of particular interest to him. He spent much of his time working on Oracle SQL Databases which, among other things, can be used to store records and manage data, and perfecting his programming skills using the coding language known as Python. 

Prior to joining Nationwide, Corpuz conducted internships at Carrols Corp and Blue Cross Blue Shield. He credited each of these experiences with helping him to grow not just his confidence, but his professional skills and capacity to network. Today he advises current Le Moyne students to make the most of every opportunity to take steps toward building their careers while they are at Le Moyne by visiting the Office of Career Advising and Development, crafting and perfecting their résumé and cover letters, taking part in mock interviews, and attending career fairs.

“Be sure to use those resources,” he said.