Harjasleen Gulati was an intern for Hoovie. She is majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Political Science at Oregon State University.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background?
I grew up in Eugene, Oregon. For most of high school, after joining my high school’s robotics team and really enjoying it, I wanted to be an electrical engineer. Because of this, I joined a physics lab (the state university in my hometown did not have an engineering department) and learned how to code for the first time. At first, I really didn’t enjoy coding, but after a while, I started to love it, which led me to want to major in CS in college.
How was your life impacted by COVID-19?
COVID-19 has been a pretty challenging time for me. My internship got canceled and my spring quarter was fully remote, but more importantly, knowing that thousands of people have died and millions of people have lost their jobs has been extremely painful. For a while, I thought that our government was not doing enough to care for its constituents, and the US government’s response to COVID-19 has just further confirmed that. This makes me really excited to vote in the 2020 elections.
Tell us about the company you interned for and what you worked on.
I interned for Hoovie, a company focused on fostering community and connection through social cinema experiences. I worked on the front-end and back-end of Hoovie’s website. One project was trying to create an application that exports film reviews from the database to Google Sheets.
What are some goals for a future career?
In the future, I would like to work at a mission-driven startup that is focused on having a societal impact and improving the lives of others.
Who are your role models/ inspires you? Why?
My mom is one of my biggest role models. She has always pushed me to do work that is meaningful to me and to do the right thing, even if doing so can be challenging or have consequences.
