I was born and raised mostly in Waterloo Iowa. I am a Full-time student at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo Iowa. As a student of Hawkeye I am currently in their 2 year associates degree program for Web Development which includes learning multiple coding languages as well as Programming Logic, Video Game Development, and many others. I spend my days off from school as a part-time caretaker for my Grandfather who became paralyzed back in 2019. I moved in to be his caretaker back when he first became paralyzed and spent a few years as their Full-time live in Caretaker up until my brother became available to help out. After he moved in, I was able to move back in with my wife in Cedar Falls in 2023 and start College in Fall of 2023. I am planning to continue my education through spring 2025 which is my Graduation date, and the entirety of the Web Development Program. I then plan to start working at least part time while I start my next phase at Hawkeye College. After the Web Development program is complete I will then start back at Hawkeye the following Fall to begin my studies in Cyber Security and Networking. I feel the knowledge of coding will help greatly in the field of Cyber Security. I specifically want to work with and understand Artificial Intelligence and want to be able to stop Hackers from Using A.I. in a malicious way. I am also looking forward to learning Counter-hacking measures.
I have been in automotive repair for most of my life as well as a few stints in security installations, Satellite TV installations, and Satellite Internet installations as well. I have been interested in mechanics and electronics since I was a child. The grandfather that I take care of, gave me my first tool box when I was roughly 10 years old. Then he told me if my bike breaks I can either wait for him or I can try to fix my bike myself. He told me that their was nothing I could do to break the bike bad enough that he could not fix it. He said I may as well try, and if I get stuck, when he came over he would help me finish fixing it. That ended up being a pivotal moment in my life that gave me the interest in science and mechanics. I was always fixing my bikes and it created a driving interest to find out how everything works. Even more importantly, fixing bikes for the neighborhood kids came with a sense of satisfaction that I began to crave. Nothing felt better then fixing my friends bikes and making them happy. That began a lifelong drive to help people that has never ended. I especially enjoy showing people how to fix their own cars when they are interested. I think that teaching could be in my future possibly after college. I really enjoy helping, and many people have told me that I can explain things in a way that helps them understand. I recently have entertained the Idea that Teaching might be something I really enjoy. I feel though I may first experience coding and Cyber-Security in the private commerce sector first since that has been my main motivation to go back to school. I also really want to be involved with A.I. development and deep learning. The drive for learning how things work that I developed as a kid, also developed an equally strong curiosity and drive to then improve upon things once I understand them. Working with A.I. In my own time has shown me vulnerabilities and shortcomings of the current generation of A.I. programs.
My favorite homework assignments so far, are my Movie page, and my Hobby page. Creating my Movie web page was the first assignment that I was able to immerse myself in. I really enjoyed coming up and experimenting with the the background and the bright colors especially. I have not really seen myself as artistic until I was in the middle of making this web page. I started to realize how much fun it actually was to design and create. I have always seen myself more as a person who enjoys puzzles and learning, but I was surprised to learn I had an artistic side to myself. I showed my assignment to other classmates and they were very impressed. That was a little bit of an eye opener for me because I both enjoyed it and I realized that my peers thought I was good at it. I realized around that point that I made a great choice in my life and became very happy with my decision to start with Web Development before Cyber-Security. My Hobby Web page originally was not my favorite but as we developed it along the way, I really started to love that page. I loved creating the background to look like it is full of stars. I was surprised at how easy it was to just use a repeating background image of dense stars, to give the appearance of deep space. I learned that this was a lot more fun then I originally had realized it would be. I also learned how the CSS plays the most important role for the feel of the web page. I broke that page a lot to make things work the way I wanted. The trial and error was very enlightening because you see so many different effects in between your final choices. Creating appearances that can make you feel something is gratifying in a way That I have not experienced before but really enjoyed. My Hobby page is also a representation of a real Hobby of mine. I enjoyed looking through images to find a few for this web page.