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Prudden

Profile: Ashley Prudden

Like many other Computer Science (CS) majors, undergraduate Ashley Prudden stumbled onto computer science as her focus for college. "When I was in high school I thought I wanted to major in graphic design or something with web design," says Prudden. "I was editor-in-chief of my yearbook and loved playing around in Photoshop and with html coding. Senior year I decided I'd look into Computer Science as opposed to graphic design because so many schools required a portfolio, and I cannot draw for the life of me." This turned out to be the right choice for Prudden. She expects to graduate in May 2009 with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science.

Prudden is enjoying college life at UMass Amherst. She spends leisure time going to concerts, hanging out with friends, and watching Grey's Anatomy on Thursday nights. In addition, Prudden was on the UMass Amherst cheerleading squad for freshman and sophomore years. She also designed and maintained their current website. She has been a cheerleader since she was 10 years old. Prudden currently cheers on an all-star team at a competitive cheerleading gym and goes to many competitions, when she is not too busy with her computer science coursework. If you go to one of the competitions, you can see Prudden getting thrown through the air during their routines.

Prudden also finds time to work as a Peer Advisor at Commonwealth College where she maintains the Student Life portion of their website. This past summer, she had a co-op position with The Volpe Center in Cambridge. "I got thrown into the world of databases and .NET programming, and I now help maintain and build applications for an online pipeline system," says Prudden. "I was fortunate enough to keep the job when I returned to school this fall, and I now work from my dorm room."

While Prudden claims she is just doing "normal things that a normal college girl would do," it is clear that she does much more than the average student. Professor Hava Siegelmann, who had Ashley in her classes for two consecutive semesters, describes her as one of the brightest students she ever had.