Curiosity, Community, and Code: Rose Agyapong '27 on Her Journey to Salesforce
Written on January 24th, 2026 by Naser
Photo credit Rose Agyapong.
This post is part of a spotlight series highlighting the work of exceptional students and alumni. The series aims to facilitate knowledge sharing on topics such as internships, jobs, entrepreneurship, and graduate school.
Today, I have the pleasure of talking to Rose Agyapong ‘27 about her recent experience as a software engineering intern at Salesforce.
Naser: Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Rose: I’m Rose Agyapong, and I’m a junior Computer Science major at Colby and a recent software engineering intern at Salesforce. Outside of school and technical work, I like to connect with people and get involved in the campus community at Colby. I serve as a Community Advisor, and I’m a member of the Colby African Society. I also love to dance and usually perform with the Vuvu dance club.
Naser: Can you tell us about your role and responsibilities during your tech internship?
Rose: At Salesforce, I was assigned to a team within the Slack organization where I worked on an internal tool for automatically managing orphaned feature toggles, which are basically feature flags that have been assigned to invalid owners. Prior to implementing my project, a human software engineer had to manually identify toggles with invalid owners and manually send Slack messages to the manager of the team for that toggle asking them to update the toggle’s owner, and the logic for identifying owners wasn’t always accurate. My internship project was focused on creating a more robust and fully automated solution that could identify these orphaned feature flags and send scheduled messages to the teams responsible for these flags.
Naser: How did you find this internship? And why did you choose it?
Rose: I actually found this internship on LinkedIn while I was actively searching for opportunities that aligned with both my technical interests and the kind of work culture I value. What really drew me to Salesforce and Slack was the culture. The emphasis on collaboration, innovation, and learning stood out to me. I’ve always admired how the company supports growth while also encouraging people to contribute meaningfully from day one. So I chose this internship because I knew it would be the kind of environment where I could both learn a lot and also bring value to the team.
Naser: Can you tell us about the interview process? And how you prepared for it?
Rose: The interview structure for most Salesforce internships is different depending on the specific organization within Salesforce that you’re interviewing for. For Slack specifically, I received materials about the structure of the interview which was basically a combination of technical and behavioral, and so I made sure I went through all the material and practiced beforehand. For the technical parts, I practiced Leetcode questions with some of my friends who were on campus with me during the summer. And I also went through my resume and made sure I could communicate clearly about my previous experiences during the behavioral parts of the interview.
Naser: How did the internship align with your academic studies at Colby, and did it provide any unique perspectives or insights?
Rose: This internship aligned really well with my academic work at Colby, especially my coursework in computer science and software engineering. A lot of what I’ve learned in class like problem-solving, writing clean code, and working through the full development process translated directly into the projects I worked on. But the internship also gave me perspectives I couldn’t get just from the classroom. There were several frameworks and tools that are simply not taught in classrooms which I had to quickly learn on the job. I also got to see how real engineering teams collaborate, manage large codebases, and balance technical decisions with user needs. Experiencing that in a professional environment helped me understand how the computer science concepts I’m learning at Colby apply at scale, and it made me even more excited about pursuing software engineering long-term.
Naser: What tips would you give students interested in doing an internship in the future but not sure where to start? You can mention any details that you like, including websites and other resources.
Rose: One tip I’d give to students who want an internship but don’t know where to start is to focus on the basics first, your resume and personal projects. Making sure you have a strong, clean resume that highlights your skills, coursework, and any projects you’ve built makes a huge difference. And those personal projects don’t need to be perfect; they just need to show that you’re curious, hands-on, and willing to learn. Building small apps, trying new tools, or contributing to beginner-friendly issues on open-source projects really help you stand out when applying for internships. Another thing I’d say is to not be afraid to apply to big tech companies. A lot of students assume they won’t get in, but you never know unless you try. At the same time, you shouldn’t make big tech your only goal. Aim to apply to as many companies as possible as soon as applications open. Software engineering roles at Mid-size companies, startups, and nonprofits all offer equally meaningful experiences. In terms of resources, I found Simplify Jobs (simplify.jobs) really helpful because they regularly post lots of SWE internship opportunities and send out daily emails about open roles. The LinkedIn Jobs page is also a great place to start because a lot of companies post internships there.
Naser: What do you like most about your chosen major?
Rose: What I like most about my computer science major is how creative and empowering it feels. I’ve found that CS isn’t just about writing code, but it’s about solving problems, building things from scratch, and turning ideas into something real that people can actually use.
I love that moment when a project finally works after hours of debugging, or when a concept from class suddenly clicks because I apply it in a real situation. I also enjoy the fact that there are so many different fields within computer science to explore whether it’s software engineering, AI, data science, or something completely new. I like the fact that CS gives me the freedom to explore so many directions. And the constant learning keeps it exciting. There’s always a new tool or concept to master. Overall, I like CS because it gives me both challenges and avenues for creativity, and that’s something I find motivating.
