Jackson Starkey

“Mentorship is really important to me, because I think there's a need for people to share their skills and their expertise with those with similar professional interests. I think that that can be uniquely rewarding in ways that you don't get through classes from professors or socially in non-professionally oriented settings.”

Let's start off with the basics. What is your name, year, major, and hometown?

My name is Jackson Starkey, I'm a third year studying Applied Math and Computer Science, and I'm from Greeley, Colorado.

Why or how did you choose to major in Applied Math and Computer Science?

I entered Cal intended Pure Math, but over my first year, I came to realize that I wasn't totally sure I wanted to go the academia route, so I decided to switch to Applied Math and add Computer Science because I was having a good time in those classes.

What are your professional interests in an applied mathematics field?

Data analytics and optimization problems have caught my eye, and I'm doing my applied math cluster in operations research. I'm going to be taking some classes in the IEOR Department, and I'm taking one right now that's been pretty cool and rewarding.

What are some of your hobbies and interests?

I sing in an a cappella group, Noteworthy. I like nerdy stuff, like Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. Right now I'm in a campaign where I'm playing a paladin. My character's just a mom with three kids. It's pretty fun.

How did you find out about SAAS and why did you join?

I joined fall of my sophomore year in the CX committee. I saw SAAS tabling on Sproul at a time when I was looking for a professional organization to join and pick up some new skills that would be relevant. They talked about data analysis, machine learning, and I was like, "Oh, cool. Gonna try this," and it worked out. I liked it a lot.

What has motivated you to stay in SAAS?

I spent a couple semesters in DC, and that was really cool for honing the machine learning, data consulting skill set. I joined Web Dev because it was another group of skills I wanted to get some practice with. And, you know, meeting people has been really, really cool and fun.

Between the two committees, which has been your favorite?

I'm partial to DC, mostly because I had a semester in person before the pandemic changed everything, and that was a really fun experience.

How has SAAS helped you with your career or professional development?

It's definitely confirmed that data analytics or data science is something I'm going to try to explore in my early career, and will possibly pursue for a long term career path if I find the right home there.

Of the three SAAS core values, community, exploration, and mentorship, which one would you say you value the most and why?

They're all important, but I think that mentorship is really important to me, because I think there's a need for people to share their skills and their expertise with those with similar professional interests. I think that that can be uniquely rewarding in ways that you don't get through classes from professors or socially in non-professionally oriented settings.

What is your favorite SAAS memory?

My first semester, Kavin Suresh and I were on the same team in CX. We were nervous little newbies in the club. And we were like, "Hey. Let's go to one of the social events." So we roll up to our first party and have a good blast. It was towards the end of the semester and big house party vibes. It was a lot of fun.

What is your personal vision for SAAS going forward?

I think I'd like to continue building relationships with people and try to become a mentor for newer members. Now that I have some, I don't know, hair on my ears or something.

What has been your favorite class and why?

Linear algebra was a trip. I'm a math geek, and linear algebra has this impact where you're like, "Wow, this is like wild stuff." You can tell that it's applicable and important to lots of things. And that was a cool payoff for going hard math at the beginning.

Who is your favorite professor?

Charles Pugh taught my section of Math H104. That was a really trippy class too. Very abstract, and he was a funny guy, real laid back. He always had this excellent fashion sense, like Hawaiian shirts every day. Chill vibes. He would draw a vector space or something real goofy and then just gesture at it really dramatically and hope that we got it and that was funny.

What is your favorite spot on campus that more people should know about?

The Haas Pavilion area is really beautiful. There's some great seating there, and if you're not a Haas person, you might not have checked it out yet.

What is your favorite place to study on campus?

Probably Moffitt. The feng shui is powerful, even if it gets really crowded.

What is the prettiest building on campus? And which is the ugliest?

I don't know if I even have to describe the ugliest, it should be known. Evans is an abomination. I would say the prettiest is the Hearst Memorial Mining Building. We took pictures in there for my acapella group one semester, and holy moly, it is beautiful. It has this awesome skylight and gorgeous walls.