Every year with the influx of freshman students comes the arrival of new professors. This year DePauw University is welcoming back one of its own, Maria Schwartzman (’10). Schwartzman serves as the Instructor of Computer Sciences. Excited about her new position at DePauw, this is what she had to say.
The DePauw (TDP): Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Maria Schwartzman (MS): I grew up in Colombus, Indiana, but I was born in Indianapolis. I went to DePauw University for my undergrad. I loved it here. I pretty much did everything there is to do here except for Greek life. I went to all the home football games except for one, and I went to a lot of baseball and soccer games. I like sports. I mean I just had a great time here.
TDP: What made you want to teach?
MS: I love teaching. I actually was the head tutor for computer sciences here as a student, for three years. So I took CS1 my freshman year and was a tutor immediately after and then became head tutor. I’ve always loved teaching in general. I taught all through grad school. I was in two different masters programs. I taught history and then I taught information systems, which is way more related to computer science. It’s fun for me to explain something to someone and see them understand.
TDP: Did you originally want to go into Computer Science?
MS: I came to DePauw as an Econ major, because I loved Econ in high school. But after my sophomore year, I got an internship in computer science. My dad was really into technology. I had my own computer since I was 11, and my parents told me to “go learn.” I started teaching myself how to code in middle school.
TDP: As a professor, how does DePauw look a second time around?
MS: It’s very much still awesome. I loved DePauw as a student and I am crazy-happy to be back. Everyone’s super nice. It’s different to be on the other side of things. There’s a lot of you don’t see going on as a student, like all the budget stuff or the interactions between faculty members. I had pretty much stayed in contact with all of the CS professors over the years, but it’s different. I still look up to everyone, but it’s not a student-professor relationship. It’s a peer relationship.
TDP: What do you specifically like about computer science?
MS: In general, I like the idea of the future, and how we can better the present somehow. I think about that a lot. The future is cool because computer science encompasses it all. I think there’s a lot of fun to be had in computer science. It’s one of the easier ways to make something. You can code your own program, and as long as it works, you run it and it will do something. For example, with German and Spanish, I could make flash cards for myself, but if I had some free time, I could make my own program for the vocab words.
TDP: If you were to recommend taking computer science to a student, what would you say?
MS: If they’re interested in the world in general, technology is so huge right now. But a lot of people come in and think, “Oh, I should be a programmer because I’m going to make a lot of money”. It’s not that easy. A lot of people take CS because they think it’ll be easier than Chemistry or Physics. You have to be able to think like a programmer. I want people to have a genuine interest in studying what we study. You should enjoy it for the sake of enjoying it.