Alumni Spotlight: Alex Haines '09

I attended Currey Ingram from freshman year of high school until my graduation in 2009.

What is your most memorable experience from CIA?

I’d love to just list several memorable experiences because I don’t really have a “most” memorable, but I’ll go with: Having the high school building finished during my senior year and actually getting to use it for about two months before graduating. Although I actually did enjoy using the cottages, having the building and being in the first class to graduate with the building in use, that’s something!

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. In fact, ask LOTS of questions. The teachers are there to help you learn and will do their absolute best to help you get to where you understand the material, and what your learning habits are.

Quite a lot! The biggest thing was it helped me figure out how I best learn. I did okay in public school, but I was slowly falling behind my classmates, with the biggest reasons being because it was very difficult to get any help, and it was very overwhelming. When I got to Currey Ingram, having the much smaller classes, which meant that teachers could spend more time individually helping students, was a HUGE plus for me. I was able to get the help I needed to understand the material and figure out my learning style.

In addition, Currey Ingram also helped me break out of my comfort zone and try out several after-school activities. I enjoyed most of them, and without the support I received to go out and try them, I would have missed out on a lot of fun times.

Finally, there was the social aspect. I met a lot of great people at Currey Ingram, teachers and students alike, and I made a lot of friends there, a few of which I still keep up with today.

There’s a lot to pick from and there is not one particular one that stands out above the rest. Truthfully the “answer” is different depending on interesting vs. exciting. For interesting, when I really think about it, despite being someone who is not a big fan of traveling, I’ve certainly gotten around. I’ve been to three of the four corner states of the U.S. (I’m not counting Hawaii and Alaska as corners), with Washington the state missing of the four, as well as a good bunch of other states, Canada (at Niagara Falls), England, and Scotland. For exciting, well, it’s no secret I’m a huge gamer, so video game tournaments pretty much win there.

I graduated from Westminster College (despite the name, it has no relation to WSN) in Fulton, Missouri, with a BA in Computer Science (both the Algorithms & Programming and the Information Technology tracks).

Currently, I work as an intern at HCA (Hospital Corporation of America) in Nashville in the IT&S department on the Security Risk Intelligence team.

What are your future plans?

I’ll be getting my own apartment soon. I will keep learning as much as I can with my time at HCA, and hopefully I can get a nice full-time (not intern) position there. If I cannot, then I’ll be looking out for other opportunities, with a preference in computer programming positions. I also want to try and visit Japan sometime during my life.