{"id":27722,"date":"2018-12-10T14:21:45","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T19:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=27722"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:57:46","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:57:46","slug":"commencement-spotlight-conrad-ma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=27722","title":{"rendered":"Commencement spotlight: Conrad Ma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This computer science major and Morehead-Cain Scholar used his love of beatboxing to make the transition to life in America after growing up in China.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Meet Conrad Ma: Beatboxer, Innovator and Graduating Tar Heel\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f896eDMJ_y0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Beatboxing is a profession for some and a hobby for many more.<\/p>\n<p>For graduating Carolina senior Conrad Ma, it\u2019s been a lifeline.<\/p>\n<p>When Ma moved from his China to study in the United States as a teenager, beatboxing helped him establish himself in a new country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a big journey, coming from China to the States,\u201d said Ma, who is among the more than 830 undergraduates who will have their degrees conferred during Winter Commencement. \u201cBeatboxing has opened up a lot of doors to meet new people, and a lot of them became good friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But beatboxing isn\u2019t the only skill set the computer science major honed during this time at Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>In the years he\u2019s been in Chapel Hill, Ma has developed a new entrepreneurial mindset. Through the Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship in the College of Arts &amp; Sciences, he helped develop software that faculty and staff can use to better communicate with their students through text messages instead of emails.<\/p>\n<p>Ma will begin a product development role with a technology company in Silicon Valley later this month.<\/p>\n<p>When he looks back on his time as a Carolina student, Ma is grateful for the skills he\u2019s picked up in classrooms and memories across campus, but it\u2019s the collection of faculty and staff mentors and friends that have made the most significant impact in his life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing I\u2019ve enjoyed the most is the people and the companionship,\u201d said Ma, a Morehead-Cain Scholar. \u201cNow, it\u2019s getting to the end of this amazing journey, and it\u2019s truly a bittersweet feeling that I currently have. I will really, really miss the people, and I\u2019d love to pay it back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>By Rob Holliday, University Communications<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This computer science major and Morehead-Cain Scholar used his love of beatboxing to make the transition to life in America after growing up in China. Beatboxing is a profession for some and a hobby for many more. For graduating Carolina senior Conrad Ma, it\u2019s been a lifeline. When Ma moved from his China to study [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,19,29,16,21,34,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-diversity","category-general","category-global-programs","category-news","category-news-archive","category-undergraduate-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49041,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27722\/revisions\/49041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}