My name is Andrew Wirtanen, and I graduated from CCCC in 2002 with an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts and a PC Service Technician certificate.
I enrolled at CCCC after graduating from Barnstable High School, initially to give myself more time to think about my long-term plan. Back then, I truly enjoyed creating websites and upgrading computers. But at the time I could not decide on a four-year Bachelor’s program and wanted to explore my options.
When I set foot on campus in the summer of 2001, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I quickly discovered the passion, support, and experience of the faculty, staff, and community at CCCC. The advisors at CCCC not only helped me plan my class schedule to allow me to graduate in 1.5 years, but they also helped me prepare to transfer to a Bachelor’s program.
I transferred seamlessly into the BS in Information Technology program at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in upstate New York. At RIT, I was introduced to user experience design and was eventually led back to Massachusetts for the MS in Human Factors in Information Design program at Bentley University.
Today, I’m a user experience designer at Citrix in Raleigh, North Carolina. I collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams to build software applications that are pragmatic, user friendly, and enjoyable for our clients. I love my job and my career, and I owe a lot of that to my beginnings at CCCC.