My name is Dan A. and I’m in pursuit of an Associate of Applied Science Degree on Business & Information Technology.

I enrolled at TCC in the Fall of 2006 not knowing for sure what direction to take. Mainly, I just want to make use of my spare time and see if my brain functions are still intact. It’s been many years since I attended college and I'm happy to say that there are still some signs of brain activity left in me. I was intrigued by computers and wanted to gain some understanding of how they work, but at the same time, wanted a contemporary Associate Degree that I can add to my resume. So I took IT courses on Programming and Security to start with. I learned a lot from those courses but they did not stir much interest in me. At the time, I was also taking other courses related to Business.

When I took Database Design (ITD) as part of my Career Studies Options, I finally realized what I want to do. I fell in love with Database Programming. I was amazed by how millions of data can be stored and manipulated to obtain desired results. And although I have yet to consider my self "knowledgeable" on the subject, I understood the concept very well and was more in-tuned on learning the skills.

Business and Accounting subjects were equally exciting because they taught me things I have always wanted to learn but never had the chance. Now that I have a little understanding of how businesses and the economy works, I find it helpful and illuminating especially in these times of economic crisis.

Currently, I’m trying to complete the rest of the required courses for my Associate Degree of which I have 24 credits left. After that, I will concentrate on Database Specialist certification and try to really learn the system. Hopefully, I will get my diploma and certificate after the Fall 2009 semester, and have additional bullets in my arsenal in this ever tightening and competitive job market.

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