Fern Saitowitz

Student

“I was in and out of the water so much I began to feel as though I was a teabag! I thought, ‘Hmm... time to do something with my brain.’”

How does a young woman from South Africa segue to residency in Israel, morph herself into a “teabag,” and wind up studying Online Computer Science at SMC? For Fern Saitowitz, the improbable story was the result of following a passion. “I love the sea,” says Fern. “So I spent ten years as a SCUBA-diving instructor all over the world. I lived in the Solomon Islands, Grand Cayman in the Caribbean, and ended up working with dolphins in the Red Sea. But I began to feel that I wanted something more, so I came to study Computer Science at SMC.”

The once itinerate divemaster reports that her new life has challenges far different than those she encountered in the Deep. “I’m a fulltime student here, and I’m working twenty hours a week. So to save myself the long commute, I decided to take the Online Computer class that I’m now involved in,” explains Fern. “The advantages of this are that I don’t have to fight for parking, I don’t have to commute, and all the work is done in my own spare time. Homework is assigned online,” she continues, “then it’s submitted and tests are given—all online. It’s actually fun, but it’s an entirely new way of learning, as well. But as this all progresses,” says Fern, “I’m sure that—as with anything else in technology—it will come closer and closer to perfection.”

Fern states, “I’m going to get my four-year degree in Computer Science, and then I’ll be taking my MCAT for medical school. I plan on being a pediatrician, so I’ll be learning all my life. But if I could,” she says, “I’d simply stay on here at SMC. I wish it were a four-year college, because the level of teaching here is really, really excellent.”

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