My Story
I graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2020 with honors, where I participated in collegiate rock climbing and cyber security competitions while completing my degree in Computer Science with a double minor in Secure Computing and Networks and Mathematics. I graduated from Lyman High School's Institute for Engineering in 2016, having taken courses in Robotics, Digital Electronics, Aerospace Engineering, CAD Design, and Computer Science.
As a software developer I am passionate reducing technical debt through efficient design an documentation, creating clean & modern interfaces with focused UX patterns that reduce friction, creating apps that increase productivity through solving specific needs, and user-focused features that make software feel magical. I also just really enjoy solving real-life problems with software, and have no problem open sourcing my projects and contributing to the F/OSS community when I can. For those who are interested, while I used to do most of my development using Vim and tmux, I have now transitioned to VS Code (with vim bindings, of course).
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. To employers, this means that I am a diligent worker that will do my job not for money, but to honor God with my hard work ethic (Colossians 3:23) and to be a witness to others (Matthew 5:16). I trust God to provide for me (Philippians 4:19) and strive for good relations with my co-workers (Romans 12:18). To everyone else, being a Christian means I attribute my accomplishments, financial well-being, and status to Him alone (1 Corinthians 15:57); they were given to me so that I may glorify Him, give to others, and enjoy the life He has given me (1 Timothy 6:17-19). It means that when I encounter difficulty, I don't complain or look for someone to blame; I dwell in the growth that I know is coming (Romans 5:3), lean on Him for the strength needed to lead me through (Psalm 34: 17-18), and then glorify Him for His strength when mine runs out (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
I have been rock climbing for over a decade, competing through the youth circuit and placing well in many National Championships before moving to Chattanooga and switching to more outdoor climbing. My best result was in 2013 when I got 4th for speed climbing in the Male Youth B age bracket and went on to the World Cup, where I placed 16th. After that victory, I doubled down on bouldering and placed 6th at the National Championship in the Male Youth A age bracket two years later. I now focus on outdoor bouldering and the more social side of climbing, like introducing new people to the sport and showing people around the many local climbing spots.
I started the Netrunners CyberPatriot team in 2014, and our team went on to win the CyberPatriot National Competition in 2016. I am now a mentor for the team and continue to help with their Linux security skills, as I myself learn more through training for the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition at UCF. Though the Netrunners have not returned to nationals yet, while I was a member the UCF CCDC team placed 2nd in the nation in 2018 and 2019 after winning the Southeast CCDC. My other achievements in cyber security include winning the 2017 and 2018 national Panoply/E-Sentinel competition (red team) and winning the Fall 2018 Lockdown v5 competition at the University of Buffalo (blue team).