{"id":542,"date":"2023-03-23T15:05:12","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T15:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/?p=542"},"modified":"2024-03-05T15:48:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T15:48:59","slug":"a-chance-conversation-brought-luis-corona-to-wcsu-on-the-way-to-a-rewarding-mis-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/2023\/03\/23\/a-chance-conversation-brought-luis-corona-to-wcsu-on-the-way-to-a-rewarding-mis-career\/","title":{"rendered":"A chance conversation with a high school administrator brought alumnus Luis Corona to WCSU on the way to a rewarding MIS career"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Luis

Luis Corona<\/p><\/div>\n

As a student at Stamford\u2019s Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, Norwalk resident Luis Corona had a chance conversation with an administrator that set him on a path to Western Connecticut State University<\/a> and a career in Management Information Systems<\/a> (MIS).<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day while I was in high school, the vice principal asked me what college I was thinking of attending,\u201d Corona said. \u201cI explained that I was deciding among the Connecticut state universities, and he mentioned that his son had attended WCSU. He went on to tell me that his son really enjoyed his time at WCSU, that it was a good school and recommended that I tour the campus. A few weeks later, I toured the school and really liked what I saw. I found the Westside campus to be very modern, and I was impressed by all the majors the university had to offer. It was also a financially sound decision, and I would be able to visit home easily on the weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially enrolled as a psychology major, Corona decided to look at a few other majors in the Ancell School of Business<\/a> that he found interesting, including management and marketing. \u201cAfter talking to some friends, they recommended I consider studying Management Information Systems-Information Security Management,\u201d Corona said. \u201cI ultimately decided on MIS because I thought it was a solid combination of two things that I was very passionate about: technology and business. After my first few MIS courses I knew I had made the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corona said that in his opinion, a strong point in WCSU\u2019s MIS program is that many of the professors and adjunct professors have real-world experience and spent time as professionals in the workforce. \u201cI think that the real-world experience that they provide really helps put into perspective how the things you are learning will be applicable to a job after you graduate,\u201d he said. \u201cDr. Yoon, Dr. Nugent, Dr. Montague and Professor Cunningham all provided great insight into their professional careers, which helped me focus on the areas that I had the most interest in. I believe this helped the MIS program be a great place to nurture my natural curiosity of how things work, and I always felt comfortable asking plenty of questions. One of my best memories was working on my final capstone presentation for Dr. Montague\u2019s course with the rest of my group. It was a tremendous amount of work, and we spent hours in the library and computer labs getting it done. But, working with such a talented group of people was a blast and I\u2019m sure they\u2019ve also gone on to do great things as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a resident student while at WCSU, Corona was able to fully participate in campus activities. \u00a0\u201cI think living on campus was great because it made me more responsible and allowed me to be much more active on campus,\u201d he explained. \u201cI was a member of the MIS Club after a few friends and I got the club running again, and we began hosting events to help students find out more about the major. Since my freshman year, I also worked on campus for the school\u2019s IT department and worked my way up to a position at the university\u2019s service desk, gradually earning more responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Corona, \u201cAny incoming students with an interest in technology, business or working with people should consider studying MIS. Specifically, I think some students really like computers, but don\u2019t feel at home in the computer science program, while others may have a strong interest in how a business runs, but want something less broad than the management program. I also think that the professors offer a tremendous amount of value to the program, and you genuinely do graduate having learned a lot, including things that will carry on to your professional career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of his career, Corona was hired right out of college by Datto as a Support Engineer. \u201cDatto is a cybersecurity and data backup company headquartered in my hometown of Norwalk,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was an awesome company where I spent the first two years of my professional career, and I learned a lot. However, in the wake of the pandemic I decided to pursue a goal I knew I wanted to complete, getting my master\u2019s degree.\u201d Corona completed a full-time M.B.A. program at a private university on the Connecticut shoreline while working for the City of Norwalk\u2019s IT department.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter completing my M.B.A., I now work as an Account Manager at a company that develops cutting-edge software solutions for insurance companies,\u201d he said. \u201cMy responsibilities include serving as a liaison between our software development team and a portfolio of large clients. A typical workday involves scheduling meetings with managers as well as c-level executives (CEO, COO, etc.) at these companies to discuss the development and implementation of our software. My primary goal is to ensure that our clients are able to implement and utilize our product to improve their workflow and grow their business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting back to the interaction in high school that resulted in his studies at WCSU, Corona said, \u201cThat quick conversation put me on the path that it did and my former vice principal might not even know it, which I plan to rectify by reaching out. He actually was one of my teachers before he became vice principal, and he was one of the few teachers who I think genuinely did care about keeping me on the right track.\u201d Not only the right track, but full steam ahead in a rewarding career.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Western Connecticut State University changes lives by providing all students with a high-quality education that fosters their growth as individuals, scholars, professionals and leaders in a global society. Our vision: To be widely recognized as a premier public university with outstanding teachers and scholars who prepare students to contribute to the world in a meaningful way.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a student at Stamford\u2019s Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, Norwalk resident Luis Corona had a chance conversation with an administrator that set him on a path to Western Connecticut State University and a career in Management Information Systems …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9,6],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-stories","tag-mis","tag-success-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}