Like most 13-year-olds, I wanted to become a game developer.

Thanks to various blogs and tutorials, I began using GameMaker and Unity to learn to program and my life has been a downward spiral ever since.

I started a new job at Lauren Innovations working on NaviGate Prepared, a web-based emergency preparedness software suite for K-12.

Looking back, this was the most fun and engaging period in my entire career. The smaller the company, the larger your impact and the more hats you get to wear. I proudly got to watch this company grow from the back room of a manufacturing plant with only a handful of us working at makeshift desks to the 150+ employee company that it is today.

My first large-scale personal project involving other people. We designed and built a job-finding site with a unique premise: chat roulette / speed dating but for interviewing. Prospective hires would be matched up with employers based on overlapping skills and needs during automatically planned timeslots. Interviews were limited to 5 minutes each, a simple rating system was implemented with a notes feature, and multiple rounds could be performed with ease.

Before pivoting we also implemented several additional features like a simplified job board and automated resume designer.

My nostalgia fueled love of arcades runs deep enough that I started buying up machines and operating a small route. I used the profits to acquire more machines, some for the route, some to flip, and others to keep in my collection.

Over time, I expanded to multiple arcade-based side hustles including buying old machines and restoring them with my father to flip and also experimenting with building a small SBC (single board computer) that could be placed into any arcade and/or vending machine for real-time telemetry via a socket powered mobile app I developed.

People Available To Help: a web/mobile solution to help our most neglected and vulnerable community members reentering society get the help they need based on their specific conditions.

Don't have an ID? Need a place to live? Want to get connected with the local church? The PATH app would curate a unique set of helpful contacts for the user to aid in their journey to success.

I was brought on by the non-technical creator to build the web portal and help with API implementation and while the project ultimately didn't get as far as we'd hoped, I did get to be a small part in some amazing stories in addition to visiting Ohio prisons.

I wouldn't describe myself as an exuberant people person, so teaching students 1-on-1 to become full-stack web developers was definitely outside of my comfort zone. However, I grew a lot and had a terrific overall experience. It's funny honestly, I thought that I was teaching my students, but they were the ones teaching me.

Lauren Innovations was purchased and combined with Alice and Safeplans to become Navigate360, the superpower of school safety!

Best. Day. Ever.

Born from the thought: "What would I do if I was bored and rich?". The holiday scavenger hunt was the fusion of an ARG and a retro treasure hunt and was planned and then executed in only 30 days on a shoestring budget. 25 almost holiday-related clues leading to real-world locations and a cash prize. I managed to get 10+ local businesses and organizations to help with the community event. The main component was a custom-built website hosted via AWS to allow hunters to asynchronously input clues they discovered based on the hints that were posted on the scavenger hunt's Twitter. Many strangers participated and the website received around 200+ unique hits per day with no advertising, just word of mouth.

Clues were buried in concrete, hung from buildings, written on cakes, broadcast on the radio, and even stolen by unidentified college employees. I learned a lot from this project and have plans to launch a much larger and greatly improved version someday in the near future.

Gained experience with big travel data and ETL processes by joining CIS. Had the joy of working with a great Indiana-based team on a series of projects ranging from automated data syncing and augmentation before being warehoused, all the way to building their new SSO hub for existing legacy products and new user administrative interfaces.

Continuing my seemingly childhood education-focused career by joining Kidpass, the #1 subscription marketplace for both online and in-person kids activities, which had been recently acquired by Begin.

After the company went through some restructuring, I've shifted to working on multiple products and services including but not limited to Little Passports, Kidpass Tutors, and the parent company Begin as a whole.

As always, I am open to trying new things, exploring new career opportunities, and continuing to learn/grow as a developer.

Want to hire me? Shoot me a message!