Curiosity opens the door to a career in information technology

Deanna Liapis is part of an elite group of students—just 13 percent of applicants globally—who have achieved the prestigious title of AWS Cloud Captain. With support from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cloud Captains are student leaders who guide and manage their campus “cloud clubs.”

Liapis, a senior in the University of Minnesota’s College of Continuing and Professional Studies (CCAPS) Information Technology Infrastructure (ITI) program, began college as a product design major but quickly realized that her true talent wasn’t artistic design.

“I wasn’t necessarily creative in an artsy way, but I was a creative problem solver,” says Liapis. Her curiosity about emerging technologies, such as AI tools like Midjourney, led her to pivot toward IT. Despite having no computing background, she took a leap of faith and enrolled in a Java programming course. “I loved it and ended up getting an A,” she says. “That’s when I knew this was the path for me.”

Building a cloud computing club from scratch

Liapis’s leadership journey began with a conversation with CCAPS career counselor Liz Hruska. “I told Liz I wanted to start or join a club, and she connected me with Norman Owens, an AWS employee and former ITI instructor looking to establish a cloud club at the University of Minnesota,” says Liapis. Despite her limited technical experience at the time, Liapis seized the opportunity to lead the club.

“At that point, I was saying yes to everything,” says Liapis. Her determination and leadership skills proved invaluable as she worked with faculty advisors and AWS professionals to build the club from the ground up. The club has since grown to more than 40 members.

Under Liapis’s leadership, the club focuses on hosting monthly events, from resume reviews with career advisors to speaker panels featuring AWS employees. “AWS networking and cloud computing careers can be challenging to break into,” says Liapis. “Our goal is to bring that community to students, giving them the opportunity to meet industry professionals and learn about the latest in cloud computing.”

Cultivating her leadership skills

Liapis’s dedication extends beyond the cloud club. She has served as a corporate outreach officer for the Association for Computing Machinery for Women and participated in the Gopher Hack cybersecurity club. This past semester, she worked as a teaching assistant for an intro to Java course with the University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering. (One of the students in the course was so inspired by her enthusiasm that they decided to pursue the ITI major themselves.)

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Liapis works as a student specialist for the University of Minnesota’s Office of Information Technology, where she encounters real-world IT challenges and opportunities for creative problem solving. 

With her sights set on graduating in fall 2025, Liapis is eager to start a career in cybersecurity and technology strategy, potentially focusing on space technology—a passion rooted in her childhood dream of becoming an astronaut.