Relentless humility and selfless enthusiasm are the most obvious character traits of Missouri Southern’s Jaired Collins, senior computational mathematics major. 

Collins, also known as the “smartest brain in the entire CIS department” by many of his classmates, will certainly be missed and highly esteemed by the mathematics and programming community at Southern long after he graduates in December.

Since he began attending Southern in the fall of 2014, Collins has spent the majority of his academic energy tutoring classmates, programming to the point of incredulity, interning in the summer at various universities, and maintaining a 4.0 GPA.

Despite his impressive academic record and the innumerable accolades of his fellow students and department instructors, Collins remains humble and credits his success to an early affinity for computers and his consistent determination to pursue his talents, interests, and lifelong goals.

“Even when I was in grade school, I always figured I’d do something with computers and math,” Collins said. 

When he enrolled at Southern and found there was such a wide array of career opportunities in the field of programming, he thought, “dang, I should do this!”

       

In his free time, and momentary breaks from chasing his educational dreams, Collins enjoys cycling, table tennis, playing the classical guitar and violin, cooking (especially with cheese), and spending the weekends with his family and friends.

His advice to any future students entering the CIS department at Southern is to take on life and “think like a computer, one line at a time.”

After graduation in December, Collins plans to take a semester off school, marry his girlfriend of three years, and attend graduate school in the fall of 2019 at either Champaign Urbana or Carnegie Mellon University.