Graduating a year early from undergraduate studies is not something that happens often, and it wasn’t something that Reuben De Souza ‘22 planned on doing.

After taking many AP classes in high school and earning more credits than usual in his freshman and sophomore year of college, he racked up enough credits to skip his senior year of studying electrical and computer engineering at OSU.

The only major difference in his courseload, as he still took the same advanced classes he would’ve had in his final year of college, was that he completed his senior capstone during junior year.

Reflecting on college overall, De Souza appreciates the broad perspectives it’s exposed him to, both inside and outside the classroom.

“It’s rare that you get to meet so many people who are willing to become friends and are from such diverse backgrounds and places,” he said. “It’s really interesting and also exciting to meet all these people.”

Although he recognizes there are some gaps in his education after graduating early, he said he is handling it just fine. 

Academic achievement isn’t something new to De Souza, as he was one of five valedictorians from his graduating class at La Salle. He said he wasn’t striving to be valedictorian, but instead was “just taking the classes that I thought were interesting.”

Other than the recognition he received before graduating, he felt that it didn’t have that much of an effect on his life, especially since, at OSU, a sizable chunk of his friends were fellow valedictorians.

After three years as an undergraduate student, De Souza said he wanted to study for his master’s at a university that had two things: an excellent and reputable electrical and computer engineering department and professors who he wanted to work with.

He also hoped to do a research-based master’s instead of just taking more classes, which eliminated what he described as “the typical schools,” such as the University of California, Berkeley or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Now, he is a first-year master’s student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, specializing in semiconductors.

De Souza has mostly enjoyed his college experience, but said that school work can sometimes be “a grind.”

He was first drawn to engineering because of his enjoyment for the math and science classes he took at La Salle. His dad then pushed him to take some electrical and computer engineering classes, and De Souza realized he liked it as well.

At OSU, his classes ranged from economics and accounting to a physical activity course, where he played a sport for a semester. He chose soccer as he was on the team all four years at La Salle.

Now that he is in graduate school, his classes are mostly engineering related. Although De Souza said that there’s always one class that “is a lot of work and it’s not really fun,” he recognizes that “that’s just how things are in life. You’re never going to get a picture perfect schedule of classes.”

De Souza said he’s worked to take advantage of his resources to get through those classes, but also had support from his friends, which he said helped to make it more enjoyable.

At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he also works as a teaching assistant for an introduction to electronics course. It mostly has freshmen and sophomores in it, and he finds it “interesting to see how their experiences are different from mine and see what they’re dealing with nowadays.”

De Souza’s favorite part of college is the people. 

“Being able to talk with different people is probably, I would say, the most fun thing,” he said.

Although he has met many new friends, De Souza said he still stays in contact with people from La Salle, who he spends time with when he returns home for the holidays.

Since he is not taking very many classes at the moment, he doesn’t have a strict schedule in his life now — different from his high school years. This means he has extra time to go to the gym or hang out with friends.

His advice to a high school student is for them to enjoy their time by doing activities they like with others, fostering relationships in the process.

“Enjoy your time,” he said. “Spend some time figuring out what you like and also find some other people who also like that thing and just start hanging out with them and making some friends.”

After he graduates with his master’s, he might continue on to a PhD, but he isn’t sure yet.

After taking a summer internship, he realized that he didn’t want to go straight into a nine-to-five life. He might explore a career related to semi-conductors, but is also considering doing a startup for a few years, potentially with some friends.

During high school he took many AP classes, which he said “just gave me a good foundation” for college learning.

De Souza also had some classes, which he was not a fan of at the time, but now that he’s graduated, he said he has “a different perspective on what those classes actually taught.”

Another thing he’s gained perspective on through college is La Salle’s core values.

“Maybe they just started as words, but [now I] really think ‘oh… this is actually a good way to live,” he said.

Now, De Souza explained that he’s working on the latter half of La Salle’s motto: “Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve.”