Student Story: A SUSE Scholarship in Cloud-Native Application Architecture

I was recently selected to compete in another Udacity scholarship challenge this time with SUSE to learn all about Cloud-Native microservices. As part of the challenge, we had to answer a few questions as part of the Student Story Program Yearbook. It's a requirement to be active in these community initiatives in order to be selected to proceed to phase 2 of the nanodegree program, so I gladly answered the questions below.

In one or two sentences give us a BRIEF introduction of yourself.

My name is Chromilo Amin and I'm from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I am a lifelong learner and believe that continuous training and re-training is the key to being relevant at your job in technology. I am disciplined enough having passed some certifications via self-study and have even loaded up on 15-credit semesters during University. I have taken many vendor certifications and many University or College degrees to further my career. There is an insatiable itch that comes with continuous learning and Udacity helps to relieve this itch with these challenges and scholarships so thank you. 

Who were you in the past? What obstacles or difficulties (big or small!) did you face, and how did that inform the person you are today? 

In the past, I was a struggling University of Hawaii at Manoa student left on my own to fend for myself immediately after high school. No kid should have to live on his own so far away from family at that point in life. I worked on-campus to make ends meet while living on-campus and needless to say, I did not enjoy the full university experience if you had to work and study at the same time. I completed my Bachelor's degree but instead of reuniting with my family, I went to work for a real estate company in Honolulu immediately after graduation in order to support myself. I was focused and determined to survive that I did not fully enjoy the tropical paradise which was Hawaii. I remember not even owning a UH of Manoa or a UH Rainbow Warriors t-shirt until I visited years later as a tourist. I have learned to fully appreciate that chapter of my life and now am applying that as I continue my Masters degree here in Canada while studying remotely at Georgia Tech. Stepping back to enjoy the learning opportunities at Georgia Tech and making sure family is front and centre is my lessons learned from my time in Hawaii.

What led you to the SUSE Cloud Native Foundations Scholarship Program? 

I was previously accepted into the Artificial Intelligence Program Manager nanodegree so I was aware of the many scholarship challenges offered by Udacity. My current job role as Enterprise IT Cloud Architect requires continuous education in all things cloud and this Cloud Native foundations challenge was perfect as it directly applies to cloud and platform engineering.

And, lastly who do you hope to be in the future as a result of this scholarship program?

At the end of this scholarship program, I hope to have enough experience with microservices to be able to competently provide design and architecture decision at my work. I hope to be able to specialize in a path and focus my energy in the correct technology that can help continue my relevance at work.