Creativity has always been a guiding motif in the exploration of my interests and education.

In the midst of uncertainty about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, one main constant was my enjoyment for problem-solving, learning, and creating new things. This has led me to try everything from writing songs to making apps.

At the University of California, Davis (UCD), I thought I wanted to be a health professional, but the process of memorizing facts about the body did not fit with my tendency to want to create something concretely. Eventually I took an introductory programming class in C. In that class, I had a notoriously challenging professor and spent lots of time in the Computer Science building’s basement. Although it was challenging, I had lots of fun. I met the most amazing and quirky people in that major and decided I wanted to take a second CS course.

Initially, it was only going to be a minor, but I ended up majoring in Computer Science. During that time, I picked up a second major in Psychology out of my interest for understanding people and how their minds worked.

During my time at UCD, I was involved in the Game Development club and undergraduate research trying to understand different ways we can make payment processes more secure. One of the most rewarding organizations I was involved with was Tutors for Incarcerated Individuals where we learned about how to provide educational resources to people involved with the justice system as well as foster youth.

This combination of knowledge may seem very different at first, but I find that understanding people is a huge part of writing user-conscious software. At Atomic Object, this is important in terms of understanding our clients’ needs. Empathy and communication are important skills I hope to keep improving at my time at Atomic as a Software Developer and Consultant. Applying my creativity along with exercising these skills makes working as an Atom a great fit.