Ellise Limjoco
This edition’s star of Humans of ICS is Ellise Limjoco!
We hope you enjoy reading about Ellise and her experience coordinating fundraisers through Fusion at UCI, managing hackathons as the logistics co-director for Hack at UCI, and helping professors run virtual courses on Minecraft!
Year: 4th Major: Computer Science and Engineering
Nathan: Hello, everyone, welcome back to Humans of ICS. Today we have Ellise Limjoco! Ellise, would you like to start off by introducing yourself such as your name, year, and major?
Ellise: Yeah, sure. Thank you. Hi! I'm Ellise, pronouns she/hers, and I am a fourth year computer science and engineering major.
N: Okay, so why did you choose computer science and engineering as your major?
E: It's kind of funny, but I was inspired by Big Hero 6. The thing is, the characters were MechE (mechanical engineering) majors, and my mom was like engineering has a bunch of guys. So, I'm like okay, well, if my aunt is CS, then I can just take the E from MechE and combine the two.
N: Okay, so what are you passionate about, and where did you develop that passion?
E: Is this passion about my major?
N: It can be but like it can be anything.
E: Okay, I guess passion about my major is from, the fun, the logic, and the complexity of building things. It's just fascinating to be able to see how our technology works. But I guess, otherwise, passion-related, I love making things happen and making things come to fruition.
N: Yeah, that's very cool. obviously getting things to happen through your work, by your hands, is fulfilling in a sense. Okay, what is one piece of advice you would give yourself before coming to UCI?
E: I guess, live in the moment! I found college way more enjoyable than high school, because I went out with people and friends and did things. I joined clubs and did a bunch of like random kind of stupid things like, just go to Aldrich Park at 4 am for fun. Just think about the present, and make things happen.
N: Yeah, definitely, college is obviously a time where people can learn more about themselves and go out there and do stuff. Okay, going into personalized questions. So you mentioned you coordinated 20 fundraisers and raised over $3,300 in donations for the black lives movement during your time at Fusion at UCI. That's like, that's actually so much money raised! Can you talk more about how you managed so many successful fundraisers within the organization?
E: This is just another passion of mine: to be able to bring success to something that I enjoy. I guess it's just the logistical mindset that I've had that helps bring things to success. In the end, being able to get the money that helps our club create amazing programs is really rewarding because it helps make a good experience for a lot of people.
N: Yeah, that's a great response. Like for a lot of different jobs. Money is a very good, pushing factor for people's motivations.
N: So you did mention as well that you are the logistics co-director of Hack at UCI. So you probably obviously managed many hackathons. How was the transition from like hosting hackathons in-person to virtual, and then going back into hybrid?
E: It is very eye-opening about how many different components go into making sure that everyone has an equal experience, especially for hybrid.This past hybrid experience was one of the more stressful ones given that we decided last minute to change it from virtual to hybrid. I just got a lot of introspection, making sure that all endpoints are covered. But in the end it turned out to be a success, so I'm really happy that I got this experience.
N: Yeah, I'm glad to hear that you overall had a good experience at Hack at UCI, especially with the latest hackathon that just happened. I did hear it was stressful, but I'm glad to hear that it was very successful in the end.
N: Okay, so you mentioned that you're a teaching assistant on a Minecraft server. What exactly do you assist in teaching?
E: So it's a Harry Potter-based Minecraft world in a nutshell. The people on there role play as if they're in the wizarding world. Granted, there's like some stuff changed for copyright reasons but the fundamentals are kind of the same. So what I do: we have live classes that are taught by volunteer professors who would do research about the subject. Let's say, herbology for example, studying about mandrakes. They go through and write up like notes like a whole lesson plan outlining like, oh, this is what the mandrake is, and try to provide it in a way that is geared towards audiences of different ages and, after the lesson is given, there's an assignment that's given out. So my role is helping these professors run their classes by adding people in the class and answering questions. Grading assignments and helping the flow of the class.
N: That sounds awesome. Oh my God, was this Minecraft server like something you found like literally online? Or is it based at like UCI, or something education-related?
E: So in the beginning of quarantine, I like use to play video games with my friend, and we were playing on this server called Mineplex. We got tired of that. I found this current server and so I've been working there for about a year and a half now.
N: Oh, yeah, I used to love and play Mineplex until it, it kind of died, I was so sad.
E: Oh, yeah, I used to play so much online.
N: And you get paid, too, and for like a fun game paid with the actual currency.
E: Oh, it’s paid by in-game currency! Would be cool if it was actual money though..
N: That would be major money moves if you were actually paid for that.
E: Yeah.
N: Okay. for your last but, it’s a nice question. What's your best cafe or food recommendation?
E: Honestly, I'm still like kind of searching right now. Oh, my God, I have a list of like almost 200. I think my favorite one right now is Dragonfly Tea Bar. It's kind of a drive though. Do you want Irvine recommendations, or just in general?
N: In general works.
E: Okay, the nearest location I think is Santa Ana. But even then that's like a 20 min drive and that one, it's open til 1AM, which is perfect, because I grind a lot of work in that session. It has nice vibes and honestly made me the most productive I've been in like ages. Their boba, granted it’s kind of expensive, but they also have Wi-fi, and I could stay late. That's my top one for now.
N: Oh, I'm assuming you made it as your number one, because of not just the time, but also because of the way it made you productive. It sounded like you had a very good experience grinding there. Yeah, I'll keep that in mind when going to a study spot.
N: Okay, the next series of questions will be a rapid fire of this or that's, so first one is early riser or night owl? E: I love being an early riser, because seeing the sunrise, it's kind of nice. It makes your day a bit longer.
N: Spicy or sweet? E: Sweet. I can't do spicy.
N: Nike or Adidas? E: I gotta say, even though I don't have any of the shoes, Adidas.
N: Netflix or Youtube? E: Youtube, I don't own Netflix.
N: Talking or texting? E: Oh, talking because I’m lazy to text.
N: Phone or pc? E: Phone, because it's a portable pc.
N: But how would you code then? E: I know. I guess I would code on my phone, but that's kind of hard.
N: Driving or walking? E: Driving [since it’s] so much faster. And it's kind of fun. It's like Mario Kart. but you know, in real life a little but yeah.
N: Coffee or tea? E: Even though I love cafes, I gotta say tea.
N: Staying in or going out? E: Right now, going out because it's fun to make memories and do things [outside].
N: Definitely, and that concludes our Humans of ICS interview.
Thanks to Ellise for being a part of Humans of ICS and thank you for reading this edition of Humans of ICS! Follow Ellise (@ell.ml) and ICSSC (@icssc.uci) on Instagram! Nominate yourself or your friends for Humans of ICS. See you next time!