Adetayo Olusegun

Harold Washington College alumnus Adetayo Olusegun transferred to UIC, secured an apprenticeship in his field, and now has a full-time job before earning his bachelor’s degree. He says he owes a lot of the credit to City Colleges of Chicago.

Adetayo moved to Chicago from Minnesota during the pandemic ready to kick start his career and enrolled at Harold Washington to study computer science. To fund his education, he received the PepsiCo Foundation Uplift Scholarship, which covered his tuition and books and allowed him to graduate in two years with zero student loan debt.

“I was able to go to school without worrying about how I was going to pay my tuition,” Adetayo said. “Without the PepsiCo Foundation Uplift Scholarship, I would have struggled through CCC. I didn’t have to work overtime, and I did better in class because I had enough time to study and go to tutoring.”

In addition to the financial support Adetayo received, he felt supported by his professors, his tutors, and the staff at City Colleges, especially those working in the Transfer and Career Centers. The Transfer Center helped Adetayo apply for Guaranteed Admissions Transfer at UIC. He was accepted as a junior in Fall 2023 to study computer science.

Adetayo would also visit the Career Center regularly to work on his resume and his cover letter. The staff got to know him and encouraged him to apply to an open apprentice position at J.P Morgan Chase. He applied and was hired. Due to his hard work, Adetayo was promoted to a full-time software engineer position at the company.

“My time at City Colleges prepared me for so many areas,” Adetayo said. “The programming classes I took at CCC prepared me for my time at UIC and in my apprenticeship at Chase. I was able to leverage those skills and apply them to my work,” he said.

Adetayo now works a full-time job in his industry while studying to obtain his bachelor’s degree. Juggling the two responsibilities isn’t easy, but Adetayo feels it’s worth it. He works at Chase from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and attends classes at UIC in the evening.

“Experience is invaluable,” he shared. “To think that I would have had years of industry experience before I graduate from a four-year college was made possible by the resources made available to me at CCC.

Adetayo has big plans for his future. He plans to graduate from UIC in 2025 and continue working in the computer science industry. Eventually, he aims to start a non-profit organization focused on inspiring middle and high school students to consider careers in computer science.

“These are the careers I want gender and racial minorities to explore to diversify our industry.”