|
Mike's Education Page
At the end of my first grade year, an awards ceremony was held and
various members of the class were presented with different awards by our
teacher, Mrs. Laird. I was given the award for the best boy
scholar in the class. I think that formed an impression of confidence in
me that allowed me to excel in my educational endeavors from that first
year of elementary school all the way through graduate school. I
knew I could succeed at school as long as the effort was present.
Auberry Elementary
School
I went to Kindergarten through eighth grade at Auberry Union Elementary
School. It was a rural foothill school that had no more than 300
pupils for the nine years of education it provided. Somehow, learning
came easily for me there. I am grateful that I was blessed with that
gift. At Auberry, I got my first taste of music education, and I
have always enjoyed and appreciated it. Mr. Bridges taught music
to all of the students from the first grade once a week. In the fifth
grade, I began playing the saxophone. I also enjoyed playing all
kinds of sports, including football, baseball, wrestling and soccer, although
I wasn’t really talented to play anything too well. My memory doesn’t
serve me well from that era of my life, but I know that it formed the mold
in which my life was cast.
Sierra High School
I found high school more challenging and less enjoyable. All of my
friends from elementary school had left. I remained alone and had no good
friends worth mentioning from those four years. I really hated those
four years, and I surmise that it may have been because I had matured significantly
more than my peers there after Tim's
accident. Everything seemed so immature that I found the actions
of everyone around me embarrassing. The silver lining to this phase
of my life was that I still enjoyed playing
in the marching, concert, and jazz bands under the helm of Mr. Weinberger.
California State University at
Fresno
I found college delightful in comparison to high school. The level
of maturity was much greater. It took five years of study to receive
my undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. I started as a
math major, because math was my easiest and most enjoyable subject in high
school. However, I couldn't think of a field of work that a pure
mathematics degree can be applied to which I would enjoy spending the rest
of life working at, so I decided to follow one of the most mathematically
applied subjects available--electrical engineering. I really applied
myself and maintained a 4.0 grade point average for four semesters, and
I only got one “B” in the first six semesters. I found myself incredibly
burned out in semester number seven. Nonetheless I always tried to
do my best, because my future was at stake, and graduated magna cum
laude for my effort.
University of California at Santa
Barbara
In 1994, after receiving my bachelor's degree, I was at a significant crossroad
in my life. Would I start working immediately? Or would I persue
graduate school? I opted for the latter, and received a masters degree
in computer engineering at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
I was offered a $17,000 award to attend the eleventh best computer engineering
program in the nation, so I just couldn’t turn it down. My first
quarter was extremely difficult as I discovered that I was playing in the
big league. My peers were absolutely brilliant. Some came from phenomenal
undergraduate programs at CalTech, UCLA, and other prestigious universities.
I didn’t consider myself as gifted as them, but I was willing to do my
best. I finished with a 3.43 G.P.A. which I was satisfied with.
And I really enjoyed the wonderful new knowledge too. I think I learned
more in that year and a half than I did through my entire undergraduate
program. It was a grueling experience, culminating in an hour-long
oral exam in front of a board of professors who drilled me on all of the
coursework I had completed there.
More Education Stuff
Last
Updated
-- 9 April 2007
|