More Than Code
My passion for community and being a positive force for change were sparked as a 4.5 years old diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia). I quickly took an interest in medicine, idealizing the nurses and doctors who supported me and my family through hard times. During summers as a teen, I worked as a camp counselor for Peaceable Kingdom Retreat, a camp that serves children and families coping with a wide range of medical issues from developmental disabilities to cancer. That desire to give back was rooted in my own camp experiences at MD Anderson's Camp Star Trails and the sense of community that arose from sharing fun and perseverance with other families going through their own harrowing and inspiring experiences with cancer.
I started a pre-med path my first year of college, but my interest quickly shifted towards storytelling through the mediums of film, writing, and experiments with the internet during its late 90’s infancy. Over the next couple decades of working in film, advertising, and marketing for non-profit organizations my interest in software development continued to deepen. I developed websites for friends as trade, and had a few clients between film gigs that pushed those amature skills along as the internet continued to evolve.
In 2013, that interest shifted from hobby to full-time passion as I stepped into Free Range’s Production Manager role. Working across almost every account the studio touched for 2.5 years, I managed client relationships, creative teams, and international development teams in Romania and Brazil for dozens of clients. Client projects ranged from go-to-market strategies for Bay Area startups to major rebrands and website restructuring for international NGOs working to bring equity to women (Global Fund for Women, UNFoundation’s GirlUp Facebook app & Blogust), modernize an online community for scientists (NYSA), empower better client relationships through technology (Lithium Be3D microsite), increase accessibility to disaster preparedness planning (FEMA/AdCouncil), and better treatment of the environment both locally and globally (Greenpeace MegaCats, ACE Assembly, Marin Clean Energy). It was here that I began to embrace the positive impact that technology and storytelling have for communities and individuals.
Most recently I’ve been freelancing as an identity designer, strategists, and product manager for biotech startup Pando Nutrition and their first product ZenHen. Pando is currently seeking their second round investment as part of IndieBio’s biotech incubator in San Francisco. They're on track to benefit animal wellbeing, human health, and the environment through their innovative technologies. I’ve also worked with fledgling Oakland fashion label A11en, and doing website optimization and brand design for SMBs in California and Central Texas. Helping these clients grow their market reach through branding, improved website performance by cutting load times more than half, and driving new business owners to innovate.
The past five years ignited a passion for digging into complex technical challenges. I often found myself bumping into problems I didn’t fully understand, and every one of them compelled me to go deeper. A little over two months ago, I took the leap and applied to General Assembly’s Software Engineering Immersive remote program. Now I’ve begun the exhilarating path of transforming into a full fledged software engineer. Every day has been an exciting new set of challenges. The state of constant learning and the moment of triumph when I got my first solo JavaScript program to work has made every moment of struggle worth it. I’m hooked and more excited than ever to keep going on the path towards software engineer. Given how much I’ve learned and grown in just four weeks, I can now see glimmers of the software engineer that awaits me in my future.
I’m excited about the weeks ahead. In the weeks beyond the course, with a more robust set of knowledge in hand, my goal is to blend my experiences in health, education, community, and business with my passion for technology to build off this foundation and continue benefiting people and the planet. Even taking this step I’ve already seen a massive transformation that extends well beyond myself, and that gives me fuel to keep going.