After programming her first button, undergrad Laura Cutler was hooked on using her creativity to optimize user experience. Now an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Information Systems at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Cutler uses her same creativity to optimize students’ experiences.
Cutler never expected to teach. In fact, as a BYU student, she wasn’t even certain about which major she wanted to pursue—until she found herself at a desk job one summer, tediously transferring information into Microsoft Excel.
“I really couldn’t imagine doing that for a three-month internship,” she explains. So Cutler decided to research how to use VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) to automate the data transfer. Six lines of self-taught code later, Cutler’s job became much easier.
Inspired by her achievement, Cutler took her first information systems (IS) class at BYU Marriott and learned how to program a button that could bring users from one part of a wepage to another. “It’s the most empowering experience I’ve ever had,” Cutler recalls. “I realized I could do creative things and make something from nothing to solve problems.” With a newfound passion, Cutler knew IS was the path for her.
Cutler initially felt intimidated in the program; after all, she had barely begun coding. “When I showed up, people were talking about how they had been building computers since they were 10,” she explains. The contrast worried Cutler, but she decided to stick to IS—and thanks to her tenacity, she found herself excelling in her classes. After five years of studies, she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in information systems.
Since entering the workforce, she has been surprised to have pursued such diverse opportunities. “In the last seven years since I graduated, I’ve been a software engineer, a product manager, and an assistant teaching professor—three incredibly different areas,” Cutler reflects.
Cutler’s first year working at BYU Marriott has been particularly different than her time working in software engineering and product management, but she believes her experience as an undergrad with limited knowledge in IS has prepared her for the task. Cutler knows firsthand that every student enters the program at a different stage in the learning process, so she is determined to build the best learning experience possible for all her students, no matter their background.
Within her first year, Cutler has already taught four separate classes. “Every semester I’m preparing a whole new class,” she explains. “Each time, I’m essentially starting from scratch.” But instead of focusing on the challenges of starting over, Cutler sees a perfect opportunity to build a new curriculum that optimizes student experience.
In her effort to create powerful student experiences, Cutler is currently creating a course about project management. Her hope is that students who are less interested in the technical side of IS can find footing in its management side. Cutler explains, “I want to be a champion for people interested in the aspects of IS that are beyond programming.”
Above all, Cutler hopes to help her students progress and enjoy learning. And as challenges inevitably arise along the way in her newest role, Cutler continues to make the best out of the situation by depending on what brought her to BYU Marriott in the first place: creating something from nothing to optimize experience.
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Written by Nicholas Day