About Me

A photo of young, brown-haired man (me), sitting on a pile of logs in front of a field of tulips.

I'm Jack Sanders, a third-year student at the University of Sheffield, studying for an MComp degree in Computer Science. Over the course of this degree I have undertaken a variety of projects - some of which are displayed on this website. Alongside my computer science degree, I am also in my second year of a three-year course in Dutch, which will massively expand my personal horizons and afford me many future opportunities, both in the UK and abroad.
While my degree has massively developed my technical ability, I would say that it has also provided me with the opportunity to develop my soft skills - for example my ability to work effectively in a team. Prior to coming to university I had never worked in a software engineering team, much less led one, but now I feel perfectly comfortable working alongside others, sharing ideas, and even taking the lead when necessary.
During my third year, I had the opportunity to work as a demonstrator on one of the first-year modules, Java Programming. My responsibilities in this role included attending first-year lab classes and then generally being on-hand to help with any java-related issues that they may have, from setup issues, to debugging complex pieces of code. This both helped me to reinforce my java knowledge (which is helpful, as there are no java modules in third year), and also developed my ability to effectively share my knowledge with other people when they ask for help.

Studying Dutch at university has become an unexpectedly big part of my studies. Initially, I took it as a non-credit module alongside my degree - meaning time management became a crucial skill that I learnt over the course of my second year. However, I now take it as one of my modules, meaning it counts towards my final degree classification
As part of my dutch studies, I was asked to take part in a promotional video for the university's Languages for all program, which you can watch either below, or on the Languages for All Dutch Course's homepage. At first, this was a daunting prospect, as I had never been on film like this before, and the prospect of being one of the first things that prospective Dutch students would see when they looked on the course website was, admittedly, slightly scary. However, I ultimately decided that I needed to push myself out of my comfort zone to enable more personal growth, and this was a golden opportunity to do just that. A decision that was made all the simpler thanks to the wholly supportive atmosphere surrounding Dutch at the University of Sheffield (from incredible teachers to a community-like class). Overall, I am very thankful that I decided to study Dutch - as well as teaching me a useful new skill, I have also managed to develop my confidence and self-belief, both of which will serve me very well in future.

Academic Achievements

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