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Clyde A. Lettsome was born and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He is a first generation American of legal<\/strong> immigrant parents that later became American citizens. His parents moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands seeking a better life and the American dream. His father was a taxi driver and mother a house-wife. Given their professions, his parents were only able to provide a lower-middle class life-style.<\/p>\n Dr. Lettsome is first generation college graduate and almost first generation high school graduate (mother attended night school as an adult to obtain her high school diploma). Despite this, he graduated #6 of 330 (top 2%) in his high school graduating class. Upon entering college, Dr. Lettsome faced a number of academic adversities especially during his first year of college. When he went to college in the state of Florida as a freshman, it was the first time he had ever been to the mainland U.S. Navigating this new environment as well as a much more rigorous curriculum, his first quarter GPA was 2.33\/4.00 and first year GPA was a 2.75\/4.00. He was placed on academic probation and faced the possibility of losing his scholarships. Dr. Lettsome worked hard for the remainder of his undergraduate time to maintain his scholarships and\u00a0 graduated with honors<\/strong> and became a member of Eta Kappa Nu, the electrical and computer engineering honor society. He eventually went on to become the first in his immediate family to obtain a graduate degree (2 masters) and the only person in his immediate family to earn a doctoral degree.\u00a0 He earned a PhD. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (top-5 US engineering college), his dream school that rejected him as an undergrad. He also spent time at Purdue University (top-10 US engineering college) as a visiting scholar while in graduate school.<\/p>\n Interesting Quicky Facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n