Wofford College Spotlight: Beyond the Lecture

Nathan Patnam ’19 aims to help Terriers pursuing careers in computer science

Benjamin Sale ’25 and Daniel Alexander ’25 received scholarships and mentorship from Nathan Patnam ’19 because of their interest in computer science.

2022-05-12

By Brandi Wylie ’24, intern

Nathan Patnam ’19 is honoring his father’s memory by awarding scholarships to Wofford College students showing an interest in computer science.

His father, Dr. Raju Patnam, who died in 2019, placed a strong emphasis on getting an education and stressed the importance of “learning something new every day.”

Patnam is using the Raju Patnam Scholarship to honor his father’s legacy while supporting Wofford students and encouraging them to seek education in the same ways that his father encouraged him. He’s also using the application process to teach and prepare students, even if they don’t receive the scholarship.

“The Career Center is not going to hire you for a job at a software company, someone at a software company is going to hire you,” Patnam says. “They can help you create a resumé or provide interview prep, but when it comes to some of these harder things in computer science, like technical interviews where someone will ask you a coding question, I want to help.”

Patnam, who lives in Simpsonville, South Carolina, is a full stack developer with Salesforce. He will join the team at Uber to assist with the company’s voucher and coupon process.

During his time at Salesforce, he established the Beyond the Lecture nonprofit, with the help of an upper manager, to mentor computer science majors. His goal is to provide opportunities for students to gain insight from professionals in the computer science field. After graduating from Wofford, Patnam began mentoring students and decided to help those at his alma mater. That led to the scholarship and nonprofit.

The initial prize, given in 2020, was a $1,500 scholarship awarded to Audrey Wiseman ’22, a computer science major from Aiken, South Carolina. The scholarship application was a Google form that resembled a job application as much as possible.

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