The sky is not the limit for Jason Soo Hoo
Successful alumnus of Alt Ed, CAD/CAM, Computer Network Tech program eyes careers in astrophysics, nanotechnology

Jason Soo Hoo of Clifton Park believes that young people should be open to all that is available to them and take time to explore their interests. While a student in Career & Tech’s Alternative Education program, Jason completed the Computer Aided Design & Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) program during his junior year and the second year of the Computer & Network Technician program during his senior year. Jason was the first Career & Tech student to earn national computer network certification. By the time he graduated in June 2005, he had earned six college credits.

Soo Hoo is currently a sophomore at Siena College, where he is majoring in computer science and physics. He also works as a research assistant to a professor conducting study of the earth’s magnetic fields. Soo Hoo is developing programs to analyze data from instruments measuring magnetic fields and is thus able to combine his love of computer science and physics.

When Soo Hoo isn’t hitting the books or assisting with research at Siena College, he works part-time, on-line, for IGN.com. “I write software for a Web-based company focusing on the computer game industry, a job I began in high school,” he related.

Soo Hoo said his Career & Tech education prepared him well. “My CAD/CAM and Computer & Network Technician classes gave me a stronger sense of what those career fields would be like,” he noted, “as well as what my college major should be. I also liked the smaller class sizes in the Alternative Education program, something I like about Siena. One-on-one time with an instructor is very important.”

Jim Boswell was Soo Hoo’s tech math teacher in the Alternative Education program. “I think Alt Ed allowed Jason to be more successful because it is flexible, has smaller classes and allows students to be who they are. Jason is self-motivated and could really focus here.”

“Jason is a very gifted student,” added Career & Tech CAD/CAM teacher Nancy Wills. “No challenge is too great for him to tackle.”

Soo Hoo’s goal after Siena is to continue his study of physics and computer science at the graduate level. “ My future career will probably involve research and possibly nanotechnology or astrophysics,” Soo Hoo related.

In high school, Soo Hoo’s educational path was not without obstacles. However, through the Alternative Education and Career and Technical Education programs, he was able to not only complete his high school studies on time and gain career skills, but to excel and build a great foundation for college. Soo Hoo advises young people to “be really open to what they want to do and get some sort of experience before making decisions. There’s plenty of time to decide what to do with life.” Judging from his success to date, Soo Hoo has been using his own time wisely.

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