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5 t h r e u n i o nGoogle “Adventure”C H A S E H E N S E L ’ 0 6M“ y dad once said to me that mylife was going to get a lot moreinteresting when I found multiplethings that I have to balance,” saysChase Hensel ’06. And Hensel’s lifehas been anything but static since hegraduated from Columbia Universitywith a bachelor’s in computer sciencein 2010.Hensel, a former Natick, Mass.,resident, describes himself as a “big cityperson” with a passion for traveling andforeign language. After completingcollege a semester early in December2009, he fulfilled his desire to travelabroad with a solo backpacking tripto South America, beginning in Texasand traveling as far as Argentina.During three months living mostlyin hostels, he soaked up the cultureand revived his Spanish.“I realized how much I appreciatedtraveling,” says Hensel. “I didn’t knowwhat to expect. But this type of travel,learning and seeing new things, is somethingI really value. And when you’reliving by yourself, you have to makefriends and do as much as you canto meet people.”Shortly after returning, Henseltraveled to Washington, D.C., to internas a public policy fellow for the ComputingResearch Association as thewinner of the 2010 Eben TisdaleFellowship. The fellowship awards a$5,000 grant to explore public policyissues in high technology.Now living in San Francisco,Hensel is an associate product managerfor Google—a position that he securedbefore graduation—developing andenhancing online products such asChase Hensel ’06 in El Chaltén,Argentina, on a backpacking tripGoogle News. Most recently, Henseland his team launched Google OnePass, a service that allows publishersto sell digital newspaper and magazinecontents or subscriptions on the Webor mobile devices. (Hensel was a softwareengineering intern for Googlein New York in the summer of 2009.)Hensel developed an interest inengineering during his senior yearat Nobles when he had a chance to explorerobotics in an independent study.After learning the basics of creatinga computer program, he built a tic-tactoegame that allowed a human playerto compete with a computer. Towardthe end of the semester, he constructeda remotely operated submarine. “Itrequired a lot of self-discipline, and Iwouldn’t have continued unless I reallycared about the material that I waslearning,” he says. Hensel also landedan internship at Machine Science, anonprofit organization that supportsengineering programs, the summerafter graduation—an accomplishmentthat he credits to science teacherDavid Strasburger.Landing a job at Google hasn’tslowed down Hensel’s travel plans; the22-year-old’s next big adventure willbe climbing Mount Kilimanjaro thissummer.—Tiffany TranSpring 2011 l the NobLES Bulletin l 37