Dev Catalyst Alumni Spotlight: Luke Potasiewicz
Luke Potasiewicz is a standout alumnus of Dev Catalyst, formerly known as CO:de Catalyst, who completed the course in his home state of Vermont. Luke had a unique experience because he really didn’t know much about theCO or Dev Catalyst until he entered the competition through his high school coding class and was awarded a trip to San Francisco.
“I didn’t know that the trip was part of the class until like halfway through the year. One of the assignments we did was the competition and a lot of my design interests came from that class. So, having that kind of competition helped me get engaged and start my web design career,” Luke said.
For many students, like Luke, Dev Catalyst’s all-expense-paid San Francisco Tech Tour is their first opportunity to visit California. The trip to Silicon Valley gives students the opportunity to recognize the innovation that is driving so many careers and businesses today. Students also see that all of these companies aren’t mythical places that live within our computers and that there are clear steps that you can take to work at some of them.
“Just going to Google and seeing their campus was really cool, it made it real and it helped me realize that it’s not just something on the internet, it’s a real place with real people. We also spent a lot of time talking to the employees at LinkedIn. It was really cool to hear what they had to say about getting internships, interviews, and job positions. I thought It was nice that they took time out of their schedules to help the students, who were really inspired by all the stuff that was around them, figure out how they could join in.”
Luke is currently completing his senior year at the University of Vermont where he’s majoring in Computer Science. He has some pretty cool hobbies like making electric bikes and Bluetooth speakers in his spare time. His tech focuses are in full stack development, meaning he develops both front end (client side) and back end (server side) portions of websites. This skill set has opened some pretty cool doors for him.
“My high school teacher, Mrs. Smith, brought in a couple of local businesses to talk to our class and one of them actually led some students on a hackathon team. The company later asked me to come to their company to do a hackathon with their coworkers and I ended up actually interning there that summer. So, right out of high school, because of the class that I was taking and the professions that were made for that, I got an internship. I interned there for two summers and two semesters. Having that experience on my resume really helped me land my next internship at Tesla,” says Luke.
Tesla, is an American electric vehicle and clean energy company based in Palo Alto, California. The company specializes in electric vehicle manufacturing, battery energy storage from home to grid scale and, solar panel and solar roof tile manufacturing.
“I had an eight-month internship at Tesla, and I actually took a semester off to do that. My team worked on their mobile app that controls the car— you can request service on it, turn the lights on and off, lock the doors, stuff like that. My role was helping the team work on the UI for that app. My favorite thing about the experience was working in the office with so many people who were really good at their jobs," Luke shared. “I worked really hard to get into Tesla so it was cool to see all of these people around me that were really smart. I learned so much working there.”
It was also the farthest Luke had ever been from home geographically. He enjoyed the climate and lifestyle while living in California. It’s safe to say Tesla enjoyed having him too because they offered him a full-time position after graduation! Luke has accepted a remote position and will work in Vermont until he is ready to make the move to California.
Dev Catalyst is approaching its eighth year and as alumni begin to graduate we’re continually amazed by their achievements. The goal from the beginning has been to provide industry-current coding education to build our nation’s tech talent pipeline. Working specifically to cultivate students’ skills in web development, physical computing, UX, and data management.
“I think computer science in high school and college is great just because it doesn’t have to be your full-time career, it’s very useful no matter what you’re doing. Having general computer knowledge at any company can be a powerful tool. If you know you want to go into computer science— it is a really good career path. If you don’t plan to make a career of it you will have the ability to, in your free time, make whatever you want because you will know the technology to code, make websites, make video games, make algorithms, it’s a really powerful tool.”
Luke is proof that with dedication an interest can be developed, can lead to some pretty cool opportunities, and ultimately to a career. Visit devcatalyst.com to learn more about Dev Catalyst and how you can bring our program to a school near you!