About Me

Hi! I’m Jackson Eshbaugh, a computer science and French student currently enrolled at Lafayette College.

Since I was young, I’ve always had a knack for computers. Whether it was showing my parents how to work iPhoto on their iMac or writing an AppleScript script, I had lots of interest in computer science from a young age. I went through my elementary school and middle school years developing my knowledge in programming and computer science in general. I became widely known as the “student-technician”, and teachers would ask me to troubleshoot their technology. I started programming (not counting AppleScript—I had been using that very basically earlier) in about 5th grade, when I learned some basic Java, so I could create Minecraft mods. In many ways, I can thank that game for giving me the tools and impetus I needed to apply myself in the field.

My years at Freedom High School were some of the best years of my life. I learned and grew so much, and I made so many great friends. Still not knowing what I wanted to do in computer science, I enrolled in A.P. Computer Science A in the 2019-2020 school year, my freshman year. I would remain interested in computer science all through high school, working on numerous projects to fill time and for fun. However, it would take until September 2022 for me to encounter my field of interest, one that I knew I had to look deeper into: bioinformatics. As part of a Biotechnology course that I took during my senior year, I had to watch a TED Talk about something in biotechnology, then read the journal article that inspired that talk. The culmination of this project was each student giving their own presentation on the subject (mine is available on this website). I presented about the intersection between biology and computer science, something that clicked as an immediate interest for me and I knew I had to do something with it in the future.

A few months later, I was in my A.P. Biology class when I was called down to the main office. I remember being confused and a bit worried—was my parking pass screwed up? When I arrived, my school counselor led me into a conference room where I was greeted by my principal, my Lafayette admissions counselor, and a big envelope (along with a few balloons and a scarf). I was accepted into Lafayette! The next chapter of my life would soon begin. I became a leopard.

And that’s where my story ends for now. I’m still young, and I’ve got so much ahead of me. But with faith in God, perseverance, and joy, I can’t see myself stopping anytime soon. Ultimately, my goal is to become a professor of computer science and to focus my research on bioinformatics, a field that I believe will soon explode and change the world.