Before studying computer science, my life was on a completely different path. All throughout high school I was convinced that soccer was going to be my life. I played at a high level, and all I wanted to do was play at a higher level. That all took a turn when I unfortunately tore my ACL my junior year of high school. Suddenly I was bedridden and realized the one thing in my life that made me feel fulfilled could no longer do that, and I was convinced that nothing would ever come close. Since I was bedridden, all I had was a computer and an abundant amount of free time that would be considered dangerous for a high schooler to have. That was the case until I stumbled on a tutorial on how to build your own PC. I became fascinated with computers, eventually got into computer science, and began to find small ways to make my life a little easier, one line of code at a time.
That habit never really left. I am at UCLA now studying computer science and linguistics, and most of the things I build still start the same way, with something small that was annoying me or somebody around me. I have worked on the mobile app at We Explore Earth, mostly the event and RSVP side of it, and spent this past summer at a nonprofit that gets school supplies to kids in Tahiti, where I built the dashboard the volunteers use to keep track of everything. On my own time I am making SwipeBite, which exists because my friends and I kept spending half an hour deciding where to eat and then not deciding. I also tutor with School on Wheels, which is probably the part that has stuck with me the most.
Outside of coding, I make music and play double bass in my free time. Learning a piece is mostly slow, unglamorous repetition, and that has changed how I approach engineering problems more than I expected. When something is not working, I am a lot more willing to sit with it and go over the same few bars again until it finally clicks.
Off the clock
Outside of the workplace…
I play Double Bass!!