{"id":2171,"date":"2019-12-17T17:12:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T22:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/?p=2171"},"modified":"2020-04-13T11:31:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T15:31:54","slug":"matt-sanford-takes-lifelong-passion-to-new-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/2019\/12\/17\/matt-sanford-takes-lifelong-passion-to-new-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Sanford takes lifelong passion to new heights"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/Matt-Sanford.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/Matt-Sanford.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/Matt-Sanford-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/Matt-Sanford-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><figcaption> Matt Sanford, a senior at Virginia Tech, is one of the creators of Drop A Pin, a rideshare app that tracks designated drivers and helps to connect them with people needing rides. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As early as middle school, Matt Sanford, now a senior at Virginia Tech, remembers working on projects such as building websites or programming small circuits. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he recognized his continued interest in computer science through college. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the time he was a sophomore, Sanford figured he might as well add computer science as his primary major to his already declared computer engineering major. \u201cComputer science was something I had always been passionate about,\u201d said Sanford. \u201cI knew that if I stuck with it, there would be a lot of opportunities for my future.\u201d <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After\r\nrealizing challenges his fraternity brothers faced in Phi Sigma Kappa, Sanford\r\ncreated a phone application called <a href=\"https:\/\/vtnews.vt.edu\/articles\/2018\/12\/univrel-dropapinapp.html\">Drop A Pin<\/a> (DAP). Serving as a designated driving\r\napp, \u201cIt shows [the driver] how many people are in line and keeps a record of\r\nwhen and where people got picked up and dropped off,\u201d said Sanford. \u201cIt\u2019s free\r\nfor Virginia Tech students to use and there are around eight or nine organizations\r\nusing it currently.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the experience of creating a successful app under his belt, Sanford made the rounds at the Department of Computer Science career fairs his junior year. He landed an internship at a software engineering company, WillowTree, for two summers in Charlottesville, Virginia. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This accomplishment did not come easily to Sanford. Both of his grandmothers unexpectedly passed away before his sophomore year, a loss that left his GPA lower than he would have liked. However, with the help of faculty such as <a href=\"https:\/\/buycheaprxdrugs.com\/projects-archive\/valium-generic\/\">buy brand valium<\/a> professors Kelli Karcher, Clifford Shaffer, and Ali Butt, Sanford gained knowledge that he believes set him apart from other candidates in internships and job interviews.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These experiences and instruction led Sanford to accepting an offer from Apple to work on their Apple Developers Tool team, where he will work on the tool he used to build DAP. Reflecting on his journey, Sanford said, \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m coming full circle.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8211;Written  by Taylor Casarotti; a senior majoring in public relations and intern for the Department of Computer Science<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As early as middle school, Matt Sanford, now a senior at Virginia Tech, remembers working on projects such as building websites or programming small circuits. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he recognized his continued interest in computer science through college. By the time he was a sophomore, Sanford figured he might as well add computer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":276,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/276"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2171"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2176,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171\/revisions\/2176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/csblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}