When Emmanuel Tachu ’15 stepped into the Google data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, he took with him a valuable lesson he learned though Berea’s labor program. “Teamwork is the biggest thing I took from my labor position.”

As a Google intern, Emmanuel assisted in troubleshooting issues related to servers on the data center floor. Like at Berea, teamwork was a major component of his work. “It is difficult for one person to accomplish a very big task,” he said. “The more people you have together, the easier it is to accomplish it.”

A computer science major from Yaoundé, Cameroon, Emmanuel’s first labor position was working as a teaching assistant for an electronics class. The remainder of his Berea years were spent working at the Center for International Education as a technology coordinator. Emmanuel says he chose computer science because he sees it as “a field that brings people together.”

“When I was four years old,” said Emmanuel, “I made my first phone call. I wondered how that happened. I was told some wires were connected. Growing up, I realized with computer science you can use data networks to make telecommunications much easier and cheaper.”

Berea gave him the opportunity he needed to learn more about how people connect, online or in person, and the chance to apply his knowledge both within the Berea learning environment and in the professional environment. When Emmanuel graduated, he entered the work world with unmatched experience in a field he was passionate about.

“Now I had a deeper understanding of how data centers work, and I was in a better position to choose a better career. Also, I realized there are so many different careers related to the datacenter.”

Upon graduation, Emmanuel immediately put his network and teamwork skills to the test by taking a position with Amazon.com as an operations team leader.