Before majoring in 计算机科学 at 蒙哥马利县社区学院, Sarah Wagner knew next to nothing about the program, let alone its job opportunities.

“I could turn a computer on,” she said, “but I had no experience with things like 网络或数据库.”

Today the Springfield Township High School graduate from Oreland credits the program for giving her the skills to land a DevOps Engineer position at Dexcom 公司., which develops continuous glucose monitoring technology for individuals living 糖尿病患者.

“I don’t know if I would have made it to Dexcom,” she said, “if I hadn’t picked Montco 作为一个学校.”

Wagner transferred from a four-year institution to MCCC in the fall of 2018. 后 her first week on the 蓝铃校园, she realized she’d made the right decision because she liked the smaller size campus and more personalized attention she received.

“It was the perfect campus for me,” she said.

作为一个 自由研究 major at the time, one of her first required classes was an introductory 计算机科学 course with 计算机科学 Assistant Professor Jason Wertz. 瓦格纳很快制作了 friends with many 计算机科学 majors in her class, and they formed a 研究 group together, which helped her immensely to excel in the class. 同样是那些朋友 她想换专业.

“They said, ‘You had a good time with us, stick with it,’” said Wagner.

From there, 计算机科学 Professor Kendall Martin showed Wagner what she could do as a computer programmer and developer, and she began to really delve deeply into 主要的.

“Both Jason Wertz and Kendall Martin were what really drove me to 计算机科学 并且享受编程，”她说. “这是一个很好的节奏变化.”

Wagner enjoyed how after 马丁的类 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, each of her classmates would head to the library 研究 room together.

“We would talk about assignments, what we were coding, job interviews,” she said. “At Montco, it felt much more like people wanted to be a group. 这样很好 某物的一部分.”

Wagner graduated with her associate’s degree in December 2020. 她原本是 scheduled to complete her program the previous spring, but through MCCC’s 职业服务他被邀请去参加一个报告 洛克希德·马丁公司 to apply for the company’s Software Associate Degree Program.

SWAP is a “three-year development program designed to attract, develop and retain early-career technical professionals in software and cyber-related careers,” according 该公司的网站. “学生 are accepted into the program before they graduate with their associate degree to accelerate the clearance process and be ready to join 毕业后的洛克希德马丁公司.”

Wagner began working for the company in February 2021 and stayed on for a year before deciding to move to a smaller company to work as a junior developer. 她在那里工作 大概有一年半了. From there she decided she wanted to pursue her bachelor’s degree and enrolled online through Southern New Hampshire University. 她的计划 to complete her degree in the summer of 2025.

In the meantime, as she looked for a new job, she thought about applying to Dexcom 公司. Wagner has Type 1 diabetes and uses the company’s products to track her blood 糖. 后 three interviews and several months of waiting, she landed the job and 今年6月开始工作.

“这真的很酷，”她说. “我有很多东西要学.  这是完全不同的 技能. 我以前是一名开发人员. 这里已经有了开发团队. They just need databases or servers spun up. 这一切都基于云.”

That said, Wagner is falling back on lessons she learned in Dr. 马丁的类.

“I hadn’t worked in the Cloud much, but during Kendall’s class she pushed us to just 去做吧，”瓦格纳说. “Even if she hadn’t used a program before, no worries, 我们可以稍后再跟她解释.”

MCCC gave Wagner the confidence to try new software and computer program languages, 即使她以前从来没用过.  

“I’ve done this before,” she said, “and I can do it again.”  

MCCC’s 计算机科学 program helped Wagner find a fulfilling career in the field. For students looking to transfer to a four-year institution to complete a bachelor’s degree in 计算机科学, an associate’s degree from MCCC can provide a solid foundation. In addition, there are numerous job opportunities in 计算机科学, and workers in Montgomery County can earn an average salary of $102,513, according to a recent 研究 由Lightcast. For more information about the 计算机科学 program, contact the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (阀杆)部门.