Nathan Patnam ’19 arrived at Wofford College intent on following his father’s career path. He was going to major in chemistry, go to medical school and become a physician.
During the second semester of his first year, Patnam took his first computer science class. More classes followed his sophomore year. He added computer science as a second major.
“My sophomore year was kind of a breaking point,” says Patnam. “I was a computer science and chemistry double major on the pre-med track. I worked in the IT help center. I was a chemistry TA and a computer science tutor. I basically treated school like it was an 8 to 6 job a lot of days.”
An internship in Chicago writing code for United Healthcare after his sophomore year proved to be the turning point.
“I learned a lot, and when I came back to Wofford I thought about whether pre-med was really right for me,” he says. “I enjoy helping people, but you can help people in a lot of different careers.”
Before his junior year, Patnam dropped chemistry as a major and went full speed into computer science. He graduated in December 2019 and went to work for Salesforce, a software company headquartered in San Francisco, working remotely from Simpsonville, South Carolina, as the COVID-19 pandemic was exploding.
He moved to Atlanta in May 2022 and went to work for Uber as a software engineer. He graduated from Georgia Tech on Dec. 16 with his master’s degree in computer science.
Patnam has created a nonprofit foundation, Beyond the Lecture, to support Wofford students who want to follow his path. An annual scholarship competition, with $3,500 going to the winner, is the focal point of the foundation, but it also offers resume feedback, interview assistance and mentoring services.
“When I graduated, I wanted to be able to give back to Wofford in some way,” Patnam says. “Donating is one way to do that, but I also wanted to create some way to add value to a student’s life and help the really motivated students achieve their goals. One thing that separates our scholarship from others is that we wanted to create a process that benefited students who didn’t win.”
The foundation will select its fourth scholarship winner in 2024. The deadline to apply is Jan. 31. Details about the foundation and a link to the scholarship application can be found HERE.
Audrey Wiseman ’22 was the first scholarship recipient. She is now a software engineer with Bank of America in Chicago.
Wiseman was followed by Daniel Alexander ’25, a computer science and physics double major from Vestavia, Alabama, and Sarah Buford ’24, a computer science major from Silverstreet, South Carolina.
Three of Patnam’s mentors, Dr. Beau Christ, associate professor of computer science; Dr. Aaron Garrett, associate professor and chair of computer science; and Dr. David Sykes, professor emeritus of computer science, are members of the foundation’s board. Garrett says Patnam’s efforts have been a boon to Wofford students.
“Nathan has been invaluable to our students with the mentoring and financial support he provides through Beyond the Lecture,” Garrett says. “Because of his work, their transition from Wofford into a professional career is straightforward and seamless.”