2016 graduate Trenton Potter traveled to Australia for a semester in 2018. Potter said it was scary for him, but it helped him grow as a person more than any other event.
2016 graduate lands internship at Amazon
Trenton Potter graduated three years ago. While in high school, Potter participated in numerous activities he feels contributed to where he is today.
“While at Hays High, I was involved in Spring Play, Webteam, Track, Scholars’ Bowl and Science Olympiad,” Potter said. “I also tried out other activities like football, swimming, band and chamber singers, but I didn’t stick with them.”
Potter said his activities taught him skills still valuable to him today.
“Being able to work hard in something is a really valuable skill,” Potter said. “Whether it’s an after school job, a club, or a sport, having to do more than just your homework after three p.m. helps you grow as a person. Specifically, Spring Play helped me be less socially anxious, Webteam introduced me to basic coding, Track helped keep me healthy, Science Olympiad taught me how to learn on my own, and Scholars’ Bowl helped me to make decisions under pressure. Every single activity I participated in has helped me out a ton in college.”
Even in college, Potter has worked to stay busy, participating in the Study Abroad Program, Entrepreneurship Club, SELF Engineering Leadership, volunteering for TEDxKU, being a part of the sponsorship team for HackKU, volunteering, supersizing, researching, and being a Teaching Assistant.
Potter helped with HackKU, a programming competition. Potter was involved with the sponsorship team. “This helped me to get really good at managing my time, other people and having a big picture view of a situation,” Potter said.
“I try to keep myself as busy as I can handle,” Potter said. “Sometimes it gets kind of stressful, but over time I’ve learned good ways of dealing with that stress.”
Potter is studying computer science at the University of Kansas, which he said basically teaches him how to write instructions for anything from computers and smartphones to rocketships and stoplights.
After his classes end this year, Potter will travel to Palo Alta, Calif. for an internship with Amazon.
“I’ll be working as a Software Development Engineer intern,” Potter said. “I’ll spend the summer out there writing computer code and working with other engineers.”
Potter said this program is going to help him be a better engineer and give him the chance to try out living in a new place. It is also a full-time job. When it ends, he’ll be right back at KU for his senior year.
“I actually only have two days between my last day of the internship and the first day of classes,” Potter said. “I’ll have to pack up and fly home from San Francisco pretty quickly. I’ll be hoping right into my senior year of college.”
19ibraun@usd489.com