When Joe Kaptur ’04 was a Sophomore at Colorado Academy, he started his college search in earnest. One university that interested him required a high school computer science class. To fulfill the requirement, Kaptur enrolled in a new computer programming class at CA taught by Kimberly Jans, where he found a fresh passion. He took two more full years of computer science classes, which propelled him into a career in technology. To show his appreciation, Kaptur visited Ms. Jans’s CA computer science classes for an entire day in February (via Zoom) and answered students’ questions about paths to careers in the technology sector.
After pursuing a computer science degree at Columbia University in New York City, Kaptur first worked at Merrill Lynch before securing a job at Google as a software engineer. During the past 10 years at Google, Kaptur has worked on several collaborative teams, including software development of Google Sheets and Google search. His current focus is creating a new programming language for use in Google search.
Kaptur had some specific advice for the students: Pay attention to how you spend your early college summers—tech companies have internships available. To this end, he mentioned programs that are available through Google:
- Computer Science Summer Institute, after Senior year of high school
- STEP, Student Training in Engineering Program, following year one or two of college
Our thanks go to Kaptur for giving back by sharing his experience with current CA students. If you have questions for him, contact Sue Burleigh in the Alumni Office for more information.