SUCCESS BEGINS WITH LEARNING
I began my journey into Information Technology very early on in high school as an elective with a basic class. I also took a Business Applications class, but because it interfered with the German classes I was taking so I could go to Germany in my graduation year I did not pursue it further at that time. It was more of a hobby for me at that time. However, I was still very interested in technology and all the innovations that were occurring. I read all the news articles I could find. I also read a lot of science fiction and often researched how feasible science was. When it came time for me to go to college, I did not know at that time that it was possible to have a computer science degree, and the information I saw about it did not interest me at all. I had moved to California, and I wanted to follow the dream of becoming an actress. So, I got my associate’s degree of art in Acting at Fullerton College. I followed that by pursuing a bachelor’s degree in art in Theatre Arts from California State University, Fullerton. It was while I was pursuing that degree that I began my journey into Web Development. It really was just a hobby for me at first, and early HTML was reasonably easy to learn.
WHERE DO I GO NOW?
I finished my degree but had difficulty finding work, so I ended up working retail. Since I felt like my degree was not doing me much good, I figured I would start pursuing a biology degree. Biology was fascinating and involved learning chemistry and a lot of math. I did well enough in those classes, but I was not as successful in the biology courses. There were far too many things to memorize and label consistently. Although everything was fascinating, I decided that my consistent failure in the biology classes meant I should move on, and pursue other avenues of opportunity.
I continued to dabble in web development, and I landed a job for a company doing data entry. Not long working for the company, the CEO recognized my talents in technology. Soon I was moved into the web research and development department. I learned a whole lot at that company as far as how to develop websites, graphic design, and overall usability. The company was quite small when I started there. It grew over the two years I was there to more of a corporate environment, and because of that it began to affect my overall health.
HOW DID I BUILD MY BUSINESS?
I stopped working for a time, but I continued to research and learn more about web development on my own. Due to my health issues I started looking for work from home jobs. There were some really crazy opportunities that I tried, but hardly any of them panned out much. Randomly I decided to share my resume with all my experience on Craigslist, and a small appraisal company contacted me to start doing data entry to help fill in data for Real Estate Appraisals. While working with them I did a lot of data entry, and there was a lot of work until the housing bubble burst. I continued to work with them after that, but we had to get more creative to get work. I also continued to pursue research and learning about web development. I began to learn Word Press. I started looking for more creative ways to work from home and find new clients. Every project and client that came my way taught me new things and helped me hone my skills and become a better developer. However, over time, I realized that there was still a great deal I just did not know.
THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS
So, it was time to go back to school once again. This time it was for software development. So, I went to ITT Technical Institute and received my Associate of Science degree in Information Technology with an emphasis on Software Development. It was then that ITT Tech went bankrupt, and I had to find a new program. I found the University of Phoenix and pursued a bachelor’s degree in Science in Information Technology with an Advanced Software Development Certificate. So, I had come this far, so I decided to go for the next degree. I pursued a Master of Science in Information Systems with a certificate in Business Analytics. I realized as I was completing this degree I really needed more education in Graphic Design so I began to take courses at Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College full-time with an expected completion of Summer 2024. Currently, I found a Ph.D. program at National University in Technology Management with a specialization in Information Systems. I am also currently going to school here full-time with an expected completion in late 2025.
TALENTS & SKILLS
Administrative Support
Microsoft Office Suite 2010+
Account Management
Customer Management
Company Management
Database Management
Data Entry
Electronic File Systems
Accounting
Data Analytics
Schedule Management
SEO
Web Development & Graphic Design
HTML/CSS
WordPress
.NET
Graphic Design
Problem Solving
Website Server Set-Up
Fixing Broken Websites
Website Troubleshooting
PHP
Usability
Responsive Design
Web Application Integration
Software Development
Android Development
iOS Development
JAVA Development
SAS Development
C++ Development
Information System Development