Meet Associa's MIT Extern: Jesus Cantu Discovers the Implications of Mobile Development

From January 8, 2018 to February 2, 2018, Associa’s Client Shared Services Center hosted two externs from MIT. We interviewed each of them after they’d returned to campus to learn more about how they found Associa, what they worked on and what they learned from their time with us. This article focuses on MIT extern Jesus Cantu. 

Name: Jesus Cantu

Major: Undecided

Year: Freshman, class of 2021

What interested you about the externship at Associa?

“The project description sounded interesting, and I wanted experience in computer science. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.”

What did you work on?

“I also worked on the same mobile application [as Victor that handles financial transactions for community management companies], although most of my work was focused on the Android version.”

Did you experience our values in our culture? (e.g. family spirit, customer service, integrity and accountability, loyalty, innovation and improvement)

“During my work at the Client Shared Services Center I noticed that many different areas always seemed to have different posters or other things on the wall that really reminded everyone of the values, making things better not only for homeowners but for employees as well.”

What was the most important or interesting thing you learned during your externship?

“Probably learning a new coding language. I’d never coded for Android before, but with the mentorship of Luis [Lafer-Sousa], Matt [Lineberger] and other people, I was able to pick it up fairly quickly and easily. I thought that learning experience was the best part.”

What was your biggest takeaway from the experience?

“How mobile development can help any field. I thought it was really cool how homeowners associations could be so interesting in the eyes of a developer. And it wouldn’t have been as amazing without the input of everyone involved. The company made sure we really learned from the work we were doing.”