Pepe Loperena

Afbeelding
Pepe-Loperena-IT
“Each day brings me one step closer to realising my goals.”
Pepe Loperena
Information Technology student

Pepe's passion for IT and desire to live abroad to experience new things led him to the Netherlands, where he found NHL Stenden. With thanks to the Information Technology programme and his internship, Pepe is relishing being surrounded by like-minded people who share the same ambition of working hard, having fun, and achieving good grades. And all the while, he keeps reminding himself that the process to reaching his goals is a marathon and not a sprint. 

“I come from a very international family and was encouraged to leave home in the Canary Islands to gain life experiences and quality education elsewhere. This is how I ended up in the Netherlands. NHL Stenden stood out to me because of its practical approach to learning with projects and real clients from day one. It's a cool place to be. My fellow students are great and my lecturers really inspire independent thinking and encourage collaboration. And the things I’ve learnt such as different coding languages, working with various operating systems, and intercultural communication have turned out to be essential skills for my internships.” 

Decoding the code  

“When it came to finding an internship, it required a little more effort than I thought it would as students are expected to find internships on their own. I found my internship through online platforms like LinkedIn and Glassdoor. The most challenging part of this process was reaching out to lots of different companies and then waiting to hear back from them, that's if you heard back from them at all. Fortunately, I did manage to eventually secure an internship. I was part of this interesting project where I needed to update an outdated pipeline architecture. It was a lot of work, but I had fun researching better solutions and implementing them. I also had other tasks like creating documentation, fixing incorrect code, doing code reviews, and deploying code.” 

 

One byte at a time  

“I truly believe that doing an internship is an essential part of the programme. I am grateful for all the insights and knowledge I got , and I particularly liked the sense of community at my internship. It's a great feeling knowing that a company sees value in what you do because they appreciate and acknowledge your efforts. I also think it's a nice transition from university to real-world work as I feel I have already been putting theory into practice. It's amazing that all aspects of the internship, even if sometimes challenging, presented learning opportunities as I met many different people in the field and was exposed to new ways of working. And, because a career in IT is so versatile and not country specific, I like the idea of becoming an ‘IT nomad’.” 

 

“After graduating, I'd love to go around the world to explore different cultures and places. Working in Bali for a month then heading to New York perhaps. To be honest, I'll go wherever opportunity takes me! My internship has helped me grow both professionally and personally as I am getting to know myself better. Each day brings me one step closer to realising my goals of working somewhere where I can contribute to the future of the world.”