CU Boulder鈥檚 computer science program was also a 鈥渘o brainer鈥� for Bilson, a junior who discovered coding through a computing club while living in Ghana as a teenager.
鈥淚 started programming and learning more and realized this is something I could make a career out of,鈥� he said. 鈥淏efore that, I thought I鈥檇 be a doctor 鈥� that鈥檚 kind of the immigrant path.鈥�
While Bilson grew up in Colorado, his parents sent him to Ghana so he could experience their culture. When it came time for college, he knew he wanted to stay in Colorado and go to CU Boulder.
鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the best schools 鈥� you never really see it in national rankings here, but it makes lists outside of the U.S.鈥� he said.
To pay for college, Bilson took out loans and worked, but financial aid was always a big piece of the picture, he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 usually on financial aid like white on rice.鈥� 听
Bilson spent his first three semesters studying, working and getting involved with the National Society of Black Engineers, robotics club, and a flag football league. Then COVID hit, and 鈥渆verything was stress.鈥�
鈥淚 was seriously considering dropping a semester because of COVID,鈥� Bilson said. 鈥淭here were a lot of questions I had in terms of how I was going to continue studying.鈥�
He went back to the BOLD Center staff, who encouraged him not to drop out and said they would see what they could put together. When they came back with the scholarship, it was a huge relief to know that he could pursue his degree without interruption.
Bilson, who has done two summer internships with Google through their , hasn鈥檛 quite settled on a career path, but he鈥檚 leaning toward artificial intelligence or natural language processing. He said he also enjoyed his virtual meet-and-greet with Waelde and Srivastava, who connected with Bilson over LinkedIn and shared his experiences working at Intuit.