Originally posted on Facebook on Sunday, January 26, 2020.

As a participant in the Inroads program, I had the wonderful opportunity as a high school junior to intern at Entergy in Jackson, Mississippi. There, I met this super smart computer science student from Millsaps College named Bhaskar Dutt. From the day I stepped off the elevator into the IT Department, Bhaskar was eager to share everything he knew with me.

Back when the primary means of connecting to another computer required a dial-up connection, Bhaskar introduced me to peer-to-peer protocols using the DOS game One Must Fall. He helped me resolve IRQ conflicts in my first custom build 486 PC. (And yes, it was because of the sound card.)

But, what Bhaskar did that was most profound was he related to me in a way that communicated that IT was a place that I, as someone who didn't look like most of the people in the room, belonged. As a result, I never left and will be forever grateful. #52WoG