“What did you do on your summer break?” is a pretty common question.
If anyone asks UMBC senior Darren Mirano how he spent his summer, he can very easily show them.
A few clicks in the official Github repository for CMS.gov shows the work he did during his Fearless summer internship.
“I could straight up just point to the files that I wrote,” he said. “It’s just so cool my code is immortalized into the project. And it’s going to be used forever, probably.”
As part of the CMS Electronic Advanced Planning Document (eAPD) team, Darren was a part of Fearless’ effort to better enable states to receive funds from Medicaid to support state run Medicaid software development projects.
Darren contributed to software projects that impact millions of Americans every day, but just a few years ago, he didn’t even know how to code. The computer science major originally entered UMBC undecided and figured he’d eventually find a passion and pick a major after taking a few different classes.
Like many Fearless team members and UMBC graduates before him, that first computer science class completely captured his attention.
“I decided to to try a class and the programming experience really gripped me. I found I really liked the entire process,” he said. “I like writing things and then testing it, even the simplest topics in computer science really interested me.”
His main interest right now is writing automated test scripts using Cypress. The javascript end-to-end testing experience is used to easily run tests across an entire program or project.
The exposure to Cypress and support from Fearless mentor Tiffany Forkner helped Darren decided where he wants to take his career after graduation.
“This internship has really helped me figure out my future career plans. Tiffany really influenced me to choose my career path. And now I want to become a testing engineer. And it’s great that I now know what I want to do after I graduate in December.”
Our team developed the Fearless internship program to help young people like Darren find their place in the tech community. We believe in bridging gaps between our community and careers in the civic tech space, and we’re starting by providing internships designed for junior talent to gain professional experience in the field.
“The fact that I could contribute and help my team made this internship 10 times better. It has been life changing to see that even my small contribution can make an impact. I can even make an impact.”
After seeing Darren’s growth and talent shine this summer, we look forward to what comes next for him!
Fearless is working to highlight technologists of color in our community to inspire the next generation. We know how hard it can be to see yourself in an industry if you don’t see anyone who is like you.We want to shine a light on the incredible people who can and should be role models for our future, more diverse tech workforce. Is there someone you think we should feature? Get in touch!
