Bryant's focus on a personalized approach to education allowed Baboucarr Gaye '07 to work closely with faculty throughout the University. "I like the attention professors give to students and the exposure to real world business issues with state-of-the-art technology," said Gaye, who studied accounting information systems.
Their attention also extends outside the classroom. "I sent Professor Laurie MacDonald in the Computer Information Systems department an e-mail regarding a project on Thanksgiving (2005) and he replied the same night," said Gaye. "That was awesome."
The continued encouragement of the faculty has opened many doors for Gaye. His relationship with Professor Gaytha Langlois in the Department of Science and Technology allowed him to collaborate on a project to computerize the fossil records of Metasequoia trees that have been compiled by Hong Yang, Associate Professor of Science and Technology, and two of his colleagues. "Professor Langlois is just exceptional. She cares about every student's progress in understanding her course materials and makes her schedule flexible to accommodate students' needs," he said.
"I saw the project as an opportunity to apply the concepts I learned in both Geographic Information Systems (as a directed study with Langlois) and software applications development," he said.
Gaye developed a database management system to store, update, and manipulate more than 500 Metasequoia fossil records from Asia, North America and Europe. "It was a challenging experience, but with the support and guidance of Professor Langlois, we designed the GIS systems which can generate maps showing the location of Metasequoia fossils using present day geographic coordinates or paleomaps linked to a specific time period millions of years ago," he explained.
Gaye, who is from the Republic of The Gambia, West Africa, sat for his Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exams. With the unveiling of a new initiative by the Gambian government in July to make the Republic into the "Silicon Valley of Africa", he plans to establish a consulting firm in IT auditing and business application development back home after gaining experience in the field. "The country is undergoing rapid development and expansion in the field of IT and telecommunications. The government's initiative will offer incentives to IT companies," Gaye explained.
Gaye is confident he made the right choice to come to Bryant and he is sure others will follow in his success.
"Be well assured that a Bryant education will offer you exceptional skills to be prepared for the 'real world,'" he said.
