The Next Adventure
In 2015, I was offered to be a mentor/developer in the iDEW program through the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University of Indianapolis. I was studying web design and user experience, and having the opportunity to help build those skills for a younger generation fascinated me. Through the program, I learned how much I enjoyed mentoring, teaching, and curriculum design. It gave me the opportunity to intern at the University of Washington, teaching students website design. It was one of the most fun experiences I will never forget. Those 2 months of teaching students changed my life.
The year was 2016, I was 22 years old. There was one thing I had on the back of my brain. I wanted to be a college teacher. I was in the last year of my Informatics degree, and a lot of my technical skillset at that point was in software engineering. I interviewed and received offers to become a junior programmer at some local Indianapolis companies. Still, my heart told me to pursue a master's degree so I could start teaching college.
Fast-forward to 2018. I graduated with a Master's degree in Informatics and accepted a job as a Lecturer in computer graphic technology at Purdue Indianapolis. I still remember getting the job offer on the phone during spring break that year, crying while getting off the phone in excitement, and then proceeding to Gamestop to buy a Nintendo Switch and play Mario Kart 8 to celebrate my victory.
Four years went by, and during that time, I received a grant to rework 4 first-year courses, taught an entire year online during COVID, and even became the department's first-year experience coordinator. I received the Barabra Jackson Award for outstanding first-year experience advocate on the entire campus in 2022.
In 2022, though, I made a huge leap. I stopped growing in my position as a lecturer. Being one of the youngest faculty members ever to be hired on the campus, I was always considered the "kid" of the team. While I did a lot to improve systems in the department, my value was becoming less and less. I began looking for other jobs, and through a lot of work, I was hired as an Instructor for Fullstack Academy's online boot camp. Going online, I took the leap and left Indiana and moved to Michigan. My parents planned to retire there, and the Ann Arbor area was such a hotbed for education, being so close to the University of Michigan, I made the move.
During that year of 2022, it was tumultuous. I was quickly promoted to Lead Instructor, I helped redevelop the foundation's curriculum, and I started to train other instructors who were new to the program. By the end of the year, I just purchased my first house, watched my mom go through cancer surgery, and become the owner of a corgi puppy named Selene. Life had flipped upside, and for the first time in a long time, I was happy. I was in a better environment physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Mind you, during all of this time, I decided to pursue a doctoral degree in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University Bloomington online. I was incredibly busy.
It's March 2024, and I was laid off. It was time for a change. My big move is distancing myself from software development. While I love building apps and websites, my time doing that has reached its peak. With the tech industry constantly shifting as well, I want to pursue something that's more stable but still gives me access to be creative in my work. The most fun I had at Purdue and FSA was working on the curriculum and seeing the results from both staff and students on how much those changes improved their lives. My true passion is working on building student experiences, curriculum development, and instructional design. While I definitely love teaching and wish to continue doing so in other avenues, my time wanting to teach technology is coming to a close.
Luckily, I've been hired as a Learning Management Administrator for SmartLab technology! I get to use my engineering skills in software, tech, education, and teaching to help build out the future platforms being used in K-12 school systems as smart technology labs!
Since 2015, I've had the pleasure of touching the lives of so many students and, in my ladder years, some faculty and staff as well. They have also touched my life with memories I'll never forget. Whether it was me with fellow interns in Seattle up late programming goofy noise makers for students' computers or creating the Kermit emotes and Kermit's Kitchen breakout room for office hours at Fullstack Academy, these will be moments I tell stories about for the rest of my life.
I've been teaching software development skills for 9 years now. It's been a wild ride and has taken me to some cool places. I want to thank Todd Shelton and Jim Lyst, my mentors at Informatics, for shaping me up to be the best web development instructor anyone could be. I also want to thank the CIT department for taking a chance on a 23-year-old who apparently was better than 7 other candidates for the title of lecturer. I also want to thank Nancy Lindfors for hiring me at Fullstack Academy, which gave me a lot of opportunities to stretch my education skillsets more so than everyone at FSA thought, as well as learn to value myself personally more than I ever had.
Most importantly, I want to thank all the students I've taught over the years. You made every day waking up worth it. There were some seriously dark times during the 9-year run, but you all helped make every day worth fighting for. Remember how awesome you can be with a little hard work.
To all I helped mentor, teach, train, or crack a joke or smile, it's been my pleasure to serve you.
