When Orrett Douglas-Prawl (’15) received an unsolicited email from Google asking him to interview for a job he was surprised. He was even more stunned when, days later, a Microsoft recruiter emailed asking him to interview.

Look at Douglas-Prawl’s resume and it’s no surprise why America’s top technology companies are vying for him. The University of Rhode Island computer engineering student developed two apps, interned for Electric Boat, garners outstanding grades and serves as president of the National Society of Black Engineers URI chapter. He also works at the University’s computer Help Desk and plays rugby.

“I like advancing myself and moving forward,” Douglas-Prawl, 20, says. “Being involved is a way to do that.”

Arriving at URI in September 2011, Douglas-Prawl found a home in engineering. The courses focusing on the intersection between computer hardware and software appealed to the Stamford, Conn. resident. His professors challenged him and the freshman Engineering Living and Learning Community provided him a support group and circle of friends.

Douglas-Prawl soon found himself fascinated by the rise of mobile computing and wearable devices. By junior year, he was teaching himself to code mobile apps for Google’s Android platform. One app calculates restaurant tips. The other allows users to access all their cloud-stored files in one place regardless of whether they are stored on Google Drive, Dropbox or similar service.

For Douglas-Prawl, it’s only the beginning.

“Everyone uses computers so if you invent a new thing everyone is going to use it,” Douglas-Prawl says. “Just knowing that you might invent the next big thing, that’s the fun part.”

Douglas-Prawl started toying with computers around age 9. Frustrated by the slow Internet speeds of his family’s dial-up connection, Douglas-Prawl began looking under the hood. By age 13, he was building computers. By high school, he was attending the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering in Stamford.

It was at the academy that Douglas-Prawl found URI. During an engineering college fair his sophomore year, his guidance counselor introduced him to Charles Watson, the College of Engineering’s minority student recruitment and retention coordinator. After speaking with Watson, Douglas-Prawl put the school on his radar. When he saw Watson again his junior year, he liked what he heard about the engineering program and the beautiful campus. He applied, won a University Fund Grant and matriculated.

Four years later, he’s on the cusp of graduating. When he does, he’ll be the first in his family to graduate college. He’s currently waiting to hear back from Microsoft and Google.

If it doesn’t work out, Douglas-Prawl has a fallback: bootstrap a tech startup and have it acquired. If his four years at URI are any indication of his future success, that shouldn’t be hard.