Recognitions

• Winner of the 2024 HotHack hackathon in Brisbane, Australia

Experience and Skills

I have 3 years professional experience as a software developer, mostly in the blockchain space. I have developed dApps on EMV chains including L1s and L2, as well as Solana. On the job, I operate in MERN stack with Typescript, utilizing Next.JS.

For my personal projects, I use Next.JS and Typescript with a PERN stack, using supabase and prisma for my SQL database connection. I also have several gaming projects developed through Unity, coded using C# and some projects that utilize AI integration or training models. I have more casually dabbled in other languages such as Rust and Python as well.

My Personal Philosophy

My work matters to me, and I seek fulfillment through the projects I create. Everything I do in my work has a purpose, whether it's to help me learn something new or to contribute to something greater. I try to create a public image of myself that is supportive of other developers in the space, and wish to be an inspiration for aspiring devs, particularly women who are under-represented both in tech overall, but specifically in AI and blockchain.

In my code, I strive for efficiency and maintainability. I have worked with both new code and legacy code, and feel equally comfortable implementing new features or improving on old ones. I am constantly trying to improve my code and work flow, as well as trying out new libraries and technologies.

Fun Facts

• I have visited every continent except Antarctica. I am hoping to take my next big trip there but it will be a few years of saving for it!
• I speak three languages fluently. I am a native English speaker and my Bachelor's degree included a strong English/linguistics component. I learned Spanish speaking to my grandmother, in high school, and living in Madrid for 5 months. I took French as my minor at university and went abroad to Lille, France for a semester to learn French gastronomy. I also visited and still keep in touch with extended family in Lyons, France.
• I spent a year teaching in Changchun, China. I didn't know any Chinese when I went but would classify myself as conversational since leaving.
• I am a huge Disney fan because I grew up next to Disneyland in California. My favorite princess is Belle but my favorite movie is Tangled.
• My favorite movie of all time is Hairspray and I usually watch it when I'm sad because I don't think I'm capable of staying sad when that movie is on.
• If I had a dog, I would be a Beagle and name it Bagel, but I'm more of a cat person.

My Story

I have a Bachelor's Degree in TESOL/Elementary School Teaching, and a Master's Degree in International Relations. With that background, you'd be fair to ask "How did she become a software developer?" This is my story...

I became an English teacher because of a passion for traveling and learning about other cultures. Through my teaching, I was able to travel and work in countries all over the world, including Spain, France, China, United States, and Australia. When I was in China, I also helped create videos for an English teaching application with ByteDance.

Of all the teaching roles I had, my favorite was teaching online through a platform called GoGoKid, which was located in China and had their student base there. GogoKid was also a part of ByteDance, which is how I found the role. However, in 2021, China changed their policies for online language education, effectively shutting down their online platforms overnight and I was left without a job, without warning.

By this time, I also had my Master's Degree and was living in Brisbane, so initially I wanted to find a job in policy making, but I quickly found that most jobs in this field required permanent residency of Australia. I could have started to look for a job teaching in a school in Australia, I really didn't want to do this, since teachers are undervalued and underpaid. I had some savings so I gave myself 6 months to figure something else out.

Since I had enjoyed my online teaching so much, and I had a vague interest in learning to code, I decided to try to rebuild the platform I had lost. To do that, I had to teach myself to code. So I began an online course geared towards teaching women to code called SkillCrush.

After completing the HTML, CSS, Git, Javascript, and React courses, I began to send my Github and resume out, looking for a job. I also attended local meetups for developers. At one of these meetups, I was offered an interview and trial day at a start up that specialized in blockchain development. I had never heard of blockchain, but I thought it was a great opportunity to see if I could be good enough to become a professional developer.

I was not.

Luckily, in the startup culture, there is a lot to be said for enthusiasm, and I certainly had that. I also knew I could learn quickly if given a chance, so I emphasized this to my potential employers. And they took that chance on me.

As I had promised, I learned quickly on the job, focusing on front-end development and understanding Typescript. My senior devs became my mentors and I told one of them that I wanted to learn how to do smart contracts for the blockchain apps we were building, since those seemed interesting. He taught me in his spare time and I picked it up quickly. I used these new skills to try to get a promotion, but when my company was unreceptive, I went to work for Labrys instead.

At Labrys, I continued to find mentors and learn as much as possible. I was able to do more fullstack development and smart contract work. I continue to work there and continue to go to meet ups to share my story and inspire others who are at the start of their development journey. I frequently talk on panels about this. My previous mentor, who had taught me smart contracts, became my current partner and we moved in together. He is still a strong support for me as a developer. And what happened to my teaching app? I'm still working on it, I promise!