Ria Wildermuth is taking computer science courses at PWSC

by Vicki Heisser and Jessica Young  |   

In today’s technological world, programming classes have become a necessity for many students. We recently caught up with Ria Wildermuth, who is taking the course TECH A125: Web Database Systems, with Associate Professor of Computer Science and Information Technology Dr. Steve Johnson.

Ria is familiar with PWSC’s computer courses. She shares, “I originally heard about Dr. Johnson’s CSA 109 C Programming class from my high school computer science teacher and took that class my senior year. This year I wanted to continue in the computer science field and decided to try out another one of his classes.” 

Now, she explains, “I am taking TECH A125: Web Database Systems, and so far, it’s about designing web databases, appropriately grouping different kinds of data, and manipulating stored data into useful reports.”

For Ria, taking computer science classes at PWSC was an obvious fit. “In high school, I took three computer science courses all focused on programming in various languages. The reason I chose this class is to explore other areas of computer science by taking a step outside of learning programming languages…I enjoy applying what I already know to the new material I’m learning.” 

Like many students this semester, Ria is taking her courses online, and though she prefers in-person classes, she notes, “the way his [Dr.  Johnson’s] courses are formatted works well for me and my learning style even though I prefer in-person learning. For being a completely online, self-study course, TECH A125 is very well done. I appreciate that he includes in his videos the history of what we are learning. Instead of just having us memorize the procedure, he showed us where and how it originated, the evolution of it and how we use it today, and where it might go in the future. His classes are well rounded and informative and I am confident that at the end of this course I will have a solid understanding of databases.”

After this semester, more computer science classes are likely in Ria’s future. She shares, “The more I learn about them now and how they work, the better I will understand them in the future. Having base knowledge like this will be extremely useful in any job I find myself in.”