Julia Liu

Julia Liu always knew she would pursue engineering, as math and science were her best subjects in school. She chose computer science as her major because it also included “some element of creativity.”

It’s a field the President’s Scholar has excelled at, earning Dean’s List recognition every semester.

Throughout her undergraduate years, Liu helped other computer science students as a mentor in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, one of the six schools in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

“I worked with advisors every summer at freshman orientation giving talks, answering questions and helping freshmen create their schedules for their first semester,” Liu says, “and I attend and help out at various events.”

Outside of class, she is a member and an officer of the Women in Computer Science student organization. She plans and organizes WiCS’s spring programming competition in her role as a co-programming competition director.

Liu encourages students who haven’t already decided on their careers that it’s OK to still be figuring it out as an undergraduate and that they have options.

“What you study in college isn’t going to pigeonhole you into one career,” she says. “Computer science students aren’t destined to only become software developers or engineers. Your major can lay down a technical foundation, but there are so many nontraditional jobs for computer science majors like sales engineering and project management.”

After graduation — where she’ll earn a minor in business in addition to her computer science bachelor’s degree — Liu will continue on at ASU in the 4+1 accelerated master’s degree program this spring. Over the summer she plans to intern at GoDaddy.

Liu also advises students to know their limits and to not schedule too many hard classes in one semester, which allows them more time for friendships, relationships, family and hobbies.

Beyond computer science, Liu’s favorite hobby for the past 11 years has been playing the cello. Most recently, she has played in the Chandler Symphony and for Music Meets Medicine, an organization where she and her friends play music for people in hospice.

Liu says, “It’s a hobby that’s really important to me and I might want to continue even beyond college.”