Isadora Grasel grew up surrounded by medicine. Her parents are doctors, her uncle practices medicine and her great-grandfather was a World War II physician in Germany. She thought she might follow the same path. Saving lives and serving others was something she felt called to do.
But the more she explored, the more she realized medicine was not her fit. She wanted a versatile career, one that could cross industries, adapt across borders and still impact lives.
Computer science became that answer.
“I might not be saving lives the same way my parents do,” Grasel said. “But technology can save lives too. That’s what excites me.”
She grew up in Brazil and a family visit to the U.S. helped set her path. While attending her cousin’s engineering graduation, Grasel was inspired by what she saw: hands-on learning, student clubs and the promise of applying technical skills to real-world challenges.
She considered going to school in Canada, but applied to Florida schools, too. USF won her over with financial support, a thriving Brazilian student community and an invitation to the Judy Genshaft Honors College.
Changing majors
At USF, she explored majors beyond medicine.
“I looked at law, finance, banking, everything,” she said. “I wanted to do something that was meaningful but would allow versatility, so that I could work at a bank or a hospital or almost anywhere.”
That’s when she found computer science. She soon discovered that USF’s new Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing would give her a front-row seat to one of the fastest-growing fields in higher education.
“Computer science was a little bit of a bet,” she said. “I didn't know for sure what I was getting into. USF let me explore every area and narrow down what I wanted my life to look like.
“At first, I worried that tech lacked humanity, but I discovered computer science is about more than being good programmers. You must understand people’s needs and use technology to solve problems.”
Early classes were daunting. Computer science wasn’t just difficult, it felt abstract compared to anything she had studied before. Grasel had to start from scratch.
“You see people who have been coding since they were 10 but that wasn’t me. After freshman year, once you hit programming-heavy theory and hardware courses, it’s a steep learning curve. You have to push through the complexity before things start to click. Some abstract concepts were really hard for me.”
She almost gave up.
Her breakthrough came when she earned her first “A” in a core computing class on data structures.
“That was the moment I thought, ‘Okay, I can really do this,’” she said.
Breaking into big tech
Around the same time, Grasel landed her first major internship. With Apple.
She connected with Apple’s recruiters at a SHPE event. SHPE is the nation's largest association dedicated to fostering Hispanic leadership in the STEM field and USF’s chapter is strong. Grasel attended the SHPE conference in Salt Lake City, Utah and that opened doors.
In 2024, she received a summer internship offer to work on Apple’s internal tools team. While confidentiality agreements limit what interns can share about their work, Grasel says that the experience was very meaningful and allowed her access to experienced peers and managers who welcomed, encouraged and supported her. They tasked her with identifying problems and Grasel developed solutions to make the everyday work of engineering project managers easier.
“It was about solving real problems, not over-engineering them,” she said. “That project ended up helping the whole team, even with it being technically simple. Simplicity sometimes is what can bridge business and technical teams seamlessly.”
The next summer, Apple invited her back and she returned to juggle multiple AI-powered projects.
"Working with multiple groups in different projects at the same time allowed me to gain even more insight into the daily work of engineers and project managers,” she said.
Preparing students for roles with global firms
Grasel credits USF with preparing her to succeed. She points to rigorous courses, supportive faculty and the student organizations that sharpened her skills. BRASA gave her a home base, while SHPE pushed her into conferences, GitHub projects and leadership roles.
“Luck is part of it,” she said. “But luck only helps if you’re prepared. I kept my resume updated, built projects, got involved in clubs. When the opportunity came, I was ready.”
Her favorite course? Mobile Biometrics with Associate Professor Tempestt Neal.
“Dr. Neal’s class gave me hands-on experience with real world problems, and I could see how computer science can actually save lives, detect health conditions and protect user data from attackers. It can make systems and data secure and directly improve health and security,” she said. “That was a moment when I realized — yes, this is how I can make a difference.”
She has also been exploring ways to participate in research – and she found a way to combine computer science with medicine.
Her honors thesis applies machine learning and, through USF’s close partnerships with health and research institutions such as Moffitt Cancer Center, she’s exploring how AI trust can impact patient care.
“There are computer science opportunities that might be overlooked or only considered by pre-med majors.”
Grasel plans to continue at USF in the accelerated master’s pathway in computer science after her May graduation, with the goal of becoming a machine learning engineer. She hopes to return to Apple one day — or to apply her skills in health care or another field where technology can make lives better.
“I want to solve problems that matter, on a big scale for those who need it the most,” she said.