My Coding Journey
For most of my career, I taught STEM subjects to middle school students. My interest in software started when I was asked to teach an "Intro to Computers" course. From that point on, I became more interested in what was happening in tech than what was happening in teaching. I quit my teaching career to follow my passion for tech. I went back to school and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology. However, the degree did not teach me how to code. I tried to teach myself to code by watching online tutorials, but that strategy did not help me reach the level that I needed to be at to get a job.
I applied to the Techtonica coding program and was accepted. Techtonica leveled up my programming skills and taught me how to be a full-stack software engineer. The program also helped me build upon my existing soft skills. After graduating from Techtonica, I completed a six-month Software Developer internship at Indeed.com. At Indeed, I grew so many technical skills that ranged from navigating the command line with Git, CI/CD, automated testing and completing production-level tickets. I am very grateful for the opportunity at Techtonica and at Indeed.
Following my internship at Indeed, I was accepted into the Major League Hacking Site Reliability Engineering Fellowship program. The fellowship kicked off with a hackathon where I collaborated with another participant to build a full-stack portfolio template using Flask and Jinga. Our template won the hackathon! I then customized the portfolio template to be my own and deployed it using a Digital Ocean Virtual Private Server. Along the way, I became comfortable with Linux fundamentals, the command line, Git, and shell scripting. After I deployed the portfolio on the VPS, I automated the deployment, added a MySQL database, set up a systemd service, and wrote unit and integration tests for the application. Next, I set up two Docker containers and orchestrated them to separate their responsibilities. Most recently, I learned more about CI/CD and set up GitHub Actions to deploy the portfolio application. I have a few weeks left of the fellowship where I will learn about monitoring, networking, and troubleshooting. On the side, I am working towards the Amazon Web Services Solution Architect - Associate Certification.
Outside of work, I relax and rejuvenate by seeking adventure in the wilderness. I am also an active adult
volunteer for the UC Cooperative Extension 4-H program. 4-H is a program where kids complete
hands-on projects in the areas of agriculture, health, science, and civic engagement. I hold the 4-H program
close to my heart because 4-H helped me discover my voice and develop leadership skills that I use every day.
I can easily develop presentations and speak at public events because of my experiences in 4-H.