‘It feels surreal’

If you told a young Nina Carlson ’24 that she’d one day secure a full-time job in high-tech before graduating from college, she wouldn’t believe it. She’d hated her high school computer science classes and came to Clark planning to major in economics.

But this August, Carlson will begin her career as a junior software engineer at Microsoft in Seattle.

“It feels surreal. The closer we get to that point, the more I’m like, is this actually happening?” she says.

Carlson became interested in computer science in her first year at Clark when her parents encouraged her to not write the field off completely. She enjoyed her classes so much that the Career Connections Center suggested she make computer science her second major. At her father’s urging, she started her sophomore year applying to internships at Microsoft, Apple, and Google for the following summer.

Eventually, the phone rang with an offer from Microsoft. Carlson completed an arduous screening process that included interviews with three software engineers and coding exercises before landing a position. During the summers of 2022 and 2023, she interned in the Microsoft Explorer program, a hybrid of software engineering and program management. Just after her internship wrapped up, Carlson received her full-time job offer.

Carlson is proud to be a woman in technology and has used her time as president of the Clark Competitive Computing Club — known as C4 — to break down preconceived notions about STEM fields, especially for female-identifying, gender-expansive, and minority students.

“I feel like C4 has been my way of making my mark on this campus,” she says. “It’s so important to keep female-identifying people active in this industry and lift them up.

“Using your voice is vital,” she adds. “Don’t be afraid to speak up in class. Stand your ground and be assertive when necessary.”

C4 collaborates with the clubs All Kinds of Growth (AKOG) and SPLASH, a branch of the Educational Studies program at Clark, to make computer science more accessible for Worcester-area youth.

“Giving kids the exposure to this subject early on is so important,” Carlson says. “It’s also great to interact with the community and give back.”

During a web development course taught by Professor Shuo Niu, Carlson discovered that computer science could introduce her to new interests. When she and her classmates were assigned to create a website for a local small business, Carlson recalled driving by an alpaca farm in Exeter, Rhode Island, called Emma’s Acres, and stopping on a whim. She was enthralled by the farm lifestyle of owners Collette and Roger Gage and enjoyed interacting with the alpacas.

Her group decided to revamp the Emma’s Acres website, overhauling it with new images and updated information (the site is still searchable on Google). The project was so inspiring that, Carlson says, it sparked in her a desire to own an alpaca farm someday.

Carlson continues to indulge her creativity and adventurous spirit. She studied in Iceland in spring 2023, kindling a desire to visit every continent. In a film photography class with Professor Stephen DiRado, she developed a passion for photographing interesting scenes around Worcester and can often be seen with her camera at the Miss Worcester Diner. “I want to make a darkroom in my studio apartment and develop film in my kitchen sink,” she says.

Even as she explores new hobbies and gets ready for the move to Seattle, Carlson is thinking about her 10-year plan.

“I hope that down the line I’ll have a leadership position where I can oversee projects and coding,” Carlson says. “I’d love to guide others. If I can get to that point, that would be amazing.”