Student Spotlight

Hailing from Iowa City, Riley Larson is a senior in information technology. He served in the Benin Cotonou Mission in West Africa before he moved to Provo to go to BYU. Not yet knowing what he wanted to major in, he took an intro computing class to see if he would like it. When he found that he really enjoyed the concepts, he looked at all the different majors the class was a prerequisite for and decided that IT was perfect for him. Due to his desire to learn more about the application of programming rather than focusing on all the extra math, Riley decided to also minor in computer science. Since the IT and computer science programs overlap a fair amount, it would have been convenient for him to take a few extra easy classes to get the minor. Instead, he took harder classes that interested him while further developing his computing skills.

Of the four major emphases the IT major has, Riley decided to focus on web development. After he graduates, he hopes to be able to build websites and work on other web technologies such as databases and system administration. Due to his hard work and dedication to learning, Riley has risen to the top of his major. Not only is he very involved with being a TA and a lead student in a research project, he also helps form the curriculum for the class that he helps teach. He enjoys being involved and, consequently, knows almost all the students in the major and is close to all of the professors.

Riley is currently a lead web developer for Playable Case Studies, a joint research grant with BYU and the University of Maryland from the National Science Foundation. “It’s a website that helps generate games where people can virtually experience a day in the life of a professional in the industry they want to work in.” They have already completed an English and cybersecurity program where the user gets to experience important skills applicable to each respective major such as developing oral research skills and debugging computers. The purpose of the project is for high school and college age students to learn educational concepts in a game format while getting an idea if the major interests them or not. Riley’s job is to make sure the website is functional by taking the design and vision of the other members on the team and making it a reality. After he writes the code and builds the website, he talks with clients and other team members, receives feedback, and makes changes as necessary.

One of Riley’s favorite things to do is try out new restaurants. Being from Iowa, he hasn’t had access to many diverse and unique restaurants and has taken advantage of the opportunity since coming to Utah. He loves to look up restaurants online or in magazines and try them out. He enjoys experiencing different cultures through their food.

As a college student, it’s difficult to travel the world, but Riley manages to experience different cultures not only through food, but through movies as well. He is a regular attendee of the international cinema and enjoys watching international movies on his own. “It’s fascinating to see how different countries make their movies and the new things that are included in them.” His love for films doesn’t just include international cinema. In the little free time that he has, Riley enjoys watching movies either at home or at the theaters. While he enjoys watching everything, a few of his favorite genres are crime comedies and biopics.

Perhaps one of Riley’s most admirable traits is his care while teaching students, both as a TA and in his research project. When asked, Riley said that his thought process when helping others learn is to show, rather than tell. “It’s a lot easier to just tell them what the issue is, but it doesn’t help them learn.” He often sits down and helps them step by step to figure out the problem themselves. Riley tries to not be too serious when he’s helping other students and chooses to crack a few jokes to help the student relax. While Riley isn’t perfect at teaching and explaining, he takes the feedback he’s given and applies it to

become better. His ability to help students makes him stand out and people look up to him because of it.

We’re lucky to have Riley as part of our student body.