About Me

I’m Nestor Rubio, a first-generation Salvadoran-American and bachelor of computer science. I have always had high expectations of himself in many aspects of life including academic, professional, and others. This means a healthy (not always) bit of competition has always been present in my life, with both others and myself. I seek to make the world a more inclusive one where spaces are open to everyone. Additionally, programming should be for anyone who wishes to learn and so I hope to help.

My Path

I graduated high school in 2019 with honors and went on to attend the University of Central Florida (UCF). This is where I first fell in love with the concept of programming and developing solutions to problems. This love lead to hours upon hours of studying to ensure that I stood out in my mastery of the lessons being taught in my courses. The saying “Time flies when you’re having fun” finally made sense to me.

After a successful (coincidentally rhymes with stressful; this fact is … irrelevant) introductory year to my computer science major, I had the opportunity to become a tutor at UCF and help fellow knights succeed in courses like Computer Science I, a course focused on introductory data structures and algorithms, and Object-Oriented Programming, a course introducing OOP concepts in the Java programming language. Through this, I learned that helping educate and clarify confusing topics for others is truly a rewarding feeling. Also, I learned that I was not alone in struggling to understand what was being taught and so I made it my goal to help as many people as I can.

For the summer semester before my senior year at UCF, I earned a position as a Software Engineer Intern with Qualtrics. This is where I got to meet and learn from so many amazing people who took time to educate me and give me the room to grow and learn programming practices that I can never forget. They helped me develop many skills which I brought back to my tutoring at UCF for my final year of tutoring. I finished my four year degree in the Spring 2023 semester with cum laude honors as a Computer Science major.

After graduation, I was able to land a position as a software engineer, where I am currently working. I am glad that I can see the impact of my work paying off and helping people on a great scale.

Why Blog Then?

Many hours of studying throughout my time at UCF were partially due to my dedication (or obsession depending on who you ask) to the material. They were also partially due to the amount of searching I had to do in order to come across material that taught the necessary topics in a way that made things “click” for me. I saw the importance of various perspectives and voices having a space in the sharing of information online. This realization, paired with my love for tutoring peers and getting to see them succeed, bring me to blog for the sake of anyone who may come across it in the future.

On top of this, documenting my own growth and learned topics can never hurt. I consider it sort of like the Rubber Duck Programming method. In this case, it’s for some level of retention rather than immediately getting past a bug or problem.

Why First Gen CS?

  • First-generation American is writing the articles
  • First in family to graduate college/university is writing the articles
  • Hoping to reach folks who are in a similar situation through this blog
  • Sounds cool

Anything Else About You?

  • I love to be active. So much in fact, that my Senior Design project at UCF was a workout planner and scheduler. It allowed for friends to share schedules and custom workout routines
  • I lack the patience for free-roam video games where the objective isn’t clearly laid out. I like to have an objective, even if it is to just win the game. Sports games are ideal. Some examples are
    • FIFA / EA FC
    • 2K
    • Rocket League