I was born in Illinois. We moved about ten times by the time I was ten.
During that time I lived in the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, South Carolina,
and of course Iowa.
My parents bought the family farm when I was ten and they have lived there since.
The family farm was a seed corn farm while I was growing up, but it is now currently
a certified organic farm.
I was homeschooled K-12. I graduated from the Vinton-Shellsburg
Homeschool Program in 2005. One of the advantages of being homeschooled
was that I was able to focus more on things that interested me at the time.
One of the things that highly interested me and still interests me is
the prarie. I took on a project of converting a section of road ditch to
native prarie plants
I then went on to Kirkwood Community College and I got a two year degree
in Parks and Natural Resources, in 2009. I enjoyed my classes a lot but I
failed to find a career path in that field that I could see myself doing for
a considerable amount of time.
I then attened Iowa State University for one and a half years.
After attending Iowa State University I went back to Kirkwood Community
College. I earned a certificate in entrepreneurship. I explored a number
of entrepreneurial ideas, but I never got anything off the ground. After
exploring entrepreneurship for a number of years and working odd jobs, I
find myself ready to be the best programmer I can be and to settle into a
good job.
I'm currently attending DeltaV Code School, Iowa's premier coding school.
I first entered the workforce at the tender age of seven! I worked for my
grandpa walking the cornfields with my family and the other workers for about
half a day at a time. I have worked on the family farm quite a bit more since
my parents purchased it when I was ten. I have detasseled seed corn for eight
summers! Since I graduated high school I have worked on the farm off and on in
between other jobs and school.
I worked as a teacher's assistant at a day care facility between high
school and before attending Kirkwood Community College. I have also worked
as a pizza delivery driver while attending school. I then worked for Classic
Lawn Care for a summer. The next summer I had an interesting, but good experience
overall working for the Americorps - Trail Crew. I mainly helped build trails
at the Mines of Spain Recreation Area, in Dubuques, Iowa. The following summer
I worked for Linn County Conservation, at Pinicon Ridge Park, in Central City,
Iowa.
I have also worked a season as a security guard for PerMar Security, for
the Iowa home football games. I was also a food runner for the restaurants
Jiamen Innovative Asian Cusine and LAVA when they both were starting out.
I have worked a few other odd jobs as well. My most recent job off the farm
was for Color Web Printer/The Gazette as a distribution coordinator.