From Shy to Fearless

“I could never get tired of playing table tennis,” says Michael Aryeetey, an undergraduate student on the New York City campus. “Imagine my excitement when I discovered that there was table tennis scattered throughout the Dell campus.”

The campus is the technology company Dell’s headquarters, where Aryeetey interned as a software engineer during the summers of 2023 and 2024. Traveling to Round Rock, Texas—just outside of Austin—Aryeetey has been busy working on Dell data projects; analyzing customer storage usage and forecasting predicted usage during his first internship and simulating streaming telemetry data (data analysis) during his second internship.  

Learning new software and programming systems through these work experiences with Dell has been critical for Aryeetey’s professional growth. He is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in computer science and master’s in data science through the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences’ B.S. with Accelerated M.S. Options program.

“During the summer after ninth grade, my dad signed me and my brothers up for coding school for web development,” Aryeetey says of how his interest in computer science began. “Over time, I grew to love that class more and more.”

While his love for the field runs deep, his passion for being a leader may run deeper. Aryeetey is involved in a plethora of extracurriculars, including serving as the New York City Student Government Association (SGA) president and the events coordinator for the Campus Activities Board, as a student representative on the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee and the Student Conduct Hearing Panel, and working as a Peer Success Guide and student assistant in the Office of Student Life. In the past, he has been an orientation leader and served on the executive boards of multiple on-campus clubs—something he had to give up when he was elected vice president of the SGA for 2023–2024.

“Coming to college in a new country—a new continent, at that—I had no intention of being as vocal as I currently am,” says Aryeetey, who left his home in Accra, Ghana, to come to New York Tech. “During my first semester I was very shy and reserved, but I still quietly attended as many campus events as I could.”

Looking at his extracurricular roles, you would never guess that Aryeetey was once the shy guy. He’s been awarded multiple times for his extracurricular activities, including the Office of Academic Success and Enrichment’s student leader awards like Host with the Most and Peer Success Guide of the Year, the Black Student Union Advocacy Award, and the Student Engagement and Development Awards’ Zennabelle Sewell Heart Award. Last year, his SGA efforts were recognized as the group received the Collaboration of the Year award for their planning of the first annual Grizzly Games. He is also one of the “faces” of the student experience at New York Tech, appearing on billboards, in digital ads, and more as part of the university’s advertising campaign. 

Now, he takes his SGA president duties seriously as he works to nurture the next generation of leaders and show the student body that they deserve to be heard. Among his many student-feedback-driven goals for this academic year, Aryeetey hopes to establish a better relationship between the student body and SGA, increase student retention and satisfaction on campus, and build more avenues for students to express their concerns or gratitude directly to the university.

After wrapping up his master’s degree early next year, Aryeetey hopes to secure a position in data analysis or artificial intelligence machine learning engineering. Looking even further ahead, he suspects he may want to someday pursue a degree in law specializing either in family or technology law. For both his peers and future College of Engineering and Computing Sciences students, Aryeetey offers three words of advice: just do it. “Don’t overthink it. Just take a leap of faith and do it,” he says. “Embrace the unknown and always be willing to learn.”