What is your full name, and what name do you prefer to go by? How do pronounce it phonetically?
My full name is Zhongjie Ma (z(zh, I know, this one is hard, so z is fine)one-je(kind of like how you pronounce jet but without the t) ma), I usually go by Jeff.
Which pronouns to do you prefer? (e.g. she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/their)
he/him/his
What is your birthday? Are you OK with having your birthday publicly acknowledged/celebrated?
My birthday is September 11th and sure why not.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Nanjing, China, a city 2 hours away from Shanghai.
Did you have any fun nicknames while growing up? Do you have any now? What is the origin (if you feel comfortable sharing)?
Most of my social media account go by JuC(pronounce it and you will get the word) Jeff now since it has been my stage name for rapping.
What holidays do you celebrate (if any)?
Chinese New Year, Spring Festival, Thanksgiving, Christmas etc.
Academics
What is your academic life like?
What year in school are you?
Last semester senior.
When do you expect to graduate?
December 2019.
What is your major? How did you choose that?
Computer Sciences, as it has so much potential in making cool things and an impact to the society.
Do you know what you'd like to do after you graduate?
A software engineer, product manager or UX designer. The tech industry rocks!
Interests
What do you like to do when you're not in class/working for STS?
What do you like to do for fun?
I set my foot into many things but in general I love fitness related things, tech stuff and cooking.
Do you have any hobbies or groups that you participate in?
I founded a bilingual rap organization called MARZ(Madison Asian Rappers) on campus and used to be in dance crews. I am now more invested in software development and planning on going to more hackathon and conferences if anyone wants to join!
Do you have any other jobs or internships?
Meanwhile, I am continuing my work for the school Computer Graphics lab on a frontend data visualization project from this summer. I am also peer mentoring in CS 639 Build User Interfaces which is an awesome class that's newly developed this semester.
Any exciting plans for summer/winter break?
Mostly securing a job and potentially moving to and settle down in a new city, which can be quite exciting(and a bit of a headache)!
Neat Facts
What are some interesting, unexpected, or surprising facts about yourself?
What is something that might surprise someone who just met you?
I used to be a bilingual rapper and had songs on Apple music and Spotify.
Where is somewhere you have always wanted to travel?
A lot of European countries like British, Iceland etc. Japan, Hawaii and I would love to take a trip to New Orleans again which is by far my favorite city in the States.
Have you ever met anyone famous?
Depending on how you define famous and in which realm lol.
Life at STS
Talk a little bit about your time with STS
What is your favorite topic to teach? If you are a new trainer, what are you excited to teach?
Web development related topics.
What is something you are interested in learning?
Motion design, Unity and tools to build AR applications.
What has been the most challenging part of working at STS? For new trainers, what parts of the job are you most curious about?
Constructing new training manuals, because I was always considering what to include and how to make it as reusable as possible.
Miscellaneous
Other potentially interesting bits of information about yourself
