Graduate school at the University of Georgia was an incredible time. The experiences I had there, and a lot of the struggles I had have helped shape me into who I am today.

All that, despite the fact that I did not complete any degree programs there.

There's a story there, and I may write up a blog post about it at some point.

In grad school I was blesssed to be able to interact and work with people from radically different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs than my own. I was introduced to Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine and was able to just hang out and work with people from all over the world and get to know them and establish friendships with them.

Those relationships and experiences were much more impactful on the course of my life than anything academically I was able to participate in.

I was still able to work on some cool projects though while I was there, and discovered how awesome Linux can be.

Awards and Honors:

• UGA Department of Computer Science Outstanding Teaching Assistant, Spring 2012
• I published one paper during my studies

Activities:

• Participated regularly in an interfaith community discussing beliefs and holding community activities

College for me at Valdosta State University probably wasn't as exciting as it was for a lot of people.

I began college as a Computer Science major, stayed a computer science major, and didn't participate in the partying scene. I took my time there very seriously from beginning to end, and used my college Computer Science classes as a way to gain as much experience with as many different technologies and software development methodologies as possible.

As an honor student at VSU I was expected to go above and beyond the normal expectations of my classes, which translated into opportunities to work on some very cool projects:

It was also during this time that I got my first tastes of what it was like to work in the field:

• I worked a semester as a Quality assurance analyst (software tester) for a local software company. This was an extremely valuable experience and really gave me my first taste of what working in the field could be like.
• I also worked several semesters as a teaching assisstant; evaluating and grading other students code and assisting with lab sessions with limited teaching duties.

Awards and Honors:

• Honors Graduate, 3.8 GPA
• VSU Department of Computer Science Outstanding Senior, Spring 2010

Activities:

• Vice President Valdosta State University chapter of the ACM (2009-2010)
• I was highly active in VSU's chapter of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry, including community activities and mission trips.

High school at Clinch County High School in Homerville Georgia was a curious time for me full of ups and downs. I made a lot of friends and was able to participate in a lot of activities and learned a lot.

One of the high points of high school was my participation in the high school band. I was never particularly athletic so it provided me with an excellent form of exercise that stretched my body as well as my brain.

Especially since I played Tuba. That thing was heavy. But boy was it fun.

It was during my senior year of high school that I discovered programming as part of my honors Calculus class. It started with simple programs on my Texas Instruments calculator and grew to include basic and eventually C programs.

It was this initial exploration into the field that convinced me that I could make a career out of software engineering; both due to it being something I enjoyed and something I appeared to have some talent for.

Some of these projects still exist and even run in 2023 without recompiling (which is nice since getting them into a recompilable state would likely take some time):

Awards and Honors:

• Salutatorian of my class.
• Received the John Phillip Sousa Marching Band award.
• Boy Scout Eagle Scout

Activities:

• Extremely active in my high school band, and played in both marching and orchestral bands year round. I was a very skilled tuba player back in the day.
• I was also very active in my local Boy Scout troop, regularly going camping, and participating in many other community activities.