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Featured photo: Blue Ridge Community College student Megan Coyle, shown in one of the Information Technology classrooms. Photo by Emily Gill.
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Blue Ridge Community College student Megan Coyle is among the first of Blue Ridge’s students to study artificial intelligence (AI) as a part of the College’s new Artificial Intelligence pathway.
She began studying at Blue Ridge in the summer of 2023 and soon found her niche in the Information Technology (IT) program. She joined The Hive, a student club focused on cybersecurity and IT interests, and was part of their team when they placed third in their first National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity CyberGames.
Coyle is proud to be among the first in the AI Pathway, not only to learn but to help shape the program.
“It’s really exciting to be the guinea pigs,” she laughed. “I’m not just learning the skills; I’m part of developing the course for students down the road.”
She also touted the importance of AI skills in an increasingly technological world.
“My advisors have explained a lot of options in the workforce or university,” she said. “That’s why I am double majoring in cybersecurity and AI. They tie together beautifully as a studying schedule and in IT as a career.”
Coyle lights up when she talks about her studies.
“There’s an element of creativity and problem solving. Being able to put those two things together is really fun to me,” she said. “It’s like getting a logic problem and then getting my own creative solution to it. Finding that solution is really rewarding.”
Learn more about Blue Ridge’s IT programs and the new AI Pathway at blueridge.edu/it.