Software Artisan
A Top Computer Technology Student Learned to Think Critically and Trust Her Talent to Jump Start Her Career
Her professors called Nicole Mandel a superstar student. She is way too modest to acknowledge any more than that she works hard and loves everything about the subject and the school. Mandel was a computer science major at Touro University’s Lander College for Women—The Anna Ruth and Mark Hasten School. After a successful summer internship at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), she returned to PwC as a software engineer associate.
Mandel is thankful for a skill she was taught at every step of her education at Touro. “Critical thinking,” she says. “Both the professors and the program are excellent, but what was invaluable was how they challenged and engaged us, how we learned to work in teams, to be creative and daring, not to just take information in and spit it back out. They taught us to think, to figure things out, to accomplish even more than we set out to do.”
Mandel, who lives in Brooklyn, fell in love with computer science in 10th grade while at Manhattan High School. It was then, too, that she began to understand that her grandmother had been a trailblazer in the field of computers. Now 73 and retired, she was the chief technology officer for a financial tech company. “She’s very proud of what I’m doing,” says Mandel.
Mandel has spent the past three years teaching basic programming and web design part time at her alma mater, Manhattan High School for Girls. She has to give up that gig now to begin her PwC position. “I’ve loved teaching the girls, but I do think it’s about time I got out of high school,” she says, laughing.
Her favorite project, the capstone of her education, has been her senior thesis, which demanded creativity, teamwork and most important, perhaps, a willingness to leave her comfort zone and trust that she knew more than she thought she did. Mandel and her two team members created a game called WorldHeist, which sounds impossible to best if the player happens to be over the age of 30. “It’s got lots of challenges and twists and turns and fun games within the game, but pulling off the Heist can be done,” she assures. “Funny thing is neither I nor my teammates are gamers.”
That didn’t stop them from acing their final project. “I’ve learned if there’s a problem, come up with a solution to solve it,” she says. “The most efficient program, easy to read and run, and fast. That’s a great feeling and such a sense of satisfaction.”
Like Mandel, Touro is proud of its computer science graduates, who are currently working at Google, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Deloitte, Northwell Health and many other major corporations and institutions.
