So, a bit about me now....

I am currently a Masters Student at North Carolina State University working under Dr. Laurie Williams. I am very excited about the many roles I will be taking on this year! Last summer, I worked as a technical intern in IBM's Extreme Blue program. This fall, I am working on my thesis, which is dealing with distributed pair programming. I am working as the Assistant Academic Liaison for the NC State STARS. STARS is student organization that works to improve the recruitment and retention of women and underrepresented groups in computing, which is something I am very passionate about. I will also continue working as a teaching assistant for Software Engineering.

When I manage to squeeze in some free time, I enjoy taking ballroom dancing lessons, reading People magazine, and watching the Colbert Report. I love rooting for the Wolfpack at football and men's basketball games. I enjoy dabbling in web design and eventually hope to learn more about graphic design. I volunteer in my church's nursery, which is fun since I don't interact with young children during my regular week.

A bit about my past....

I was born in New Bern, NC. My father was a career Marine officer, which has had a great influence on my life. I attended elementary schools in North Carolina, Arizona, Alabama, and Nebraska. My 7th grade year, my family moved back to New Bern where we stayed until I graduated high school. Growing up in a military home instilled a deep sense of patriotism in me, and I have great respect for those who serve our country.

I marched in my high school's band for four years. When I came to North Carolina State University, I decided to continue marching and had a great time the last three years playing piccolo and rooting for the Wolfpack at every football game. I also joined the Pep Band, which supports both the men's and women's basketball teams. I had a wonderful time traveling with our men's team to the NCAA "Sweet Sixteen" Tournament in 2005.

Throughout grade school, math was my favorite subject because it is so logical. I loved playing around on my parents' computer and investigating the limits of all of the software. The internet fascinated me, and I would "surf the net" looking for well designed websites. With all of these factors combined, I decided to major in Computer Science. I had no idea that Computer Science was a male dominated field, but it became extremely apparent to me when I was the only girl in my second level Java class. I find programming to be an enjoyable challenge and have enjoyed further exploring Software Engineering as a grad student.

In the fall of 2005, I successfully ran for the webmaster position of the Wolf Village Neighborhood Association. I created the website and took pleasure in receiving feedback from my neighbors about the site. Because the webmaster is an executive board position, I also became involved in planning and putting on programs for the residents. In the fall of 2006, I relinquished my webmaster position and became the Vice President. It allowed me to use my leadership skills to influence the neighborhood in which I live. The Neighborhood Association was an entirely new experience for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting people outside of my typical interests and views.

From 2004 until 2007, I was an intern at the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology, and Science. My primary job was maintaining the Adventures of the Agronauts website, a complete online science curriculum for third grade students. As one of the few students working in the office, I was also the general "techie"; employees often asked me to help them with questions they had with their computers. I learned a lot through their questions and have become better equipped to explain technical concepts in simple terms. During the summer of 2005, I took on more hours and responsibilities at the Kenan Institute. I maintained the general Kenan Institute website and helped edit Kenan Fellows' websites. During the summer of 2006, I worked full time for the Space Initiative program. I developed an online tutorial for users to learn the many different aspects of the Agronauts website.

I graduated in May 2007 from NC State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics. I was not too fond of the orange College of Engineering tassel, so I wore a pink one instead. ;)

During the summer of 2007, I spent my time at Penn State doing research under Dr. Mary Beth Rosson as part of the CRA-W's Distributed Mentors Program. I worked with the wConnect team to develop collaborative software tools in Java to give to high school females through small workshops. The objective was to increase high school girls’ awareness and stimulate their interest in computing through group-oriented problem solving. Using minimalist design principals, we simplified the user interface to make the tools easier for girls to learn. We also developed scenarios and basic project structure for the girls to build upon during the workshops. It was a lot of fun to work with a research team and learn more about my options as a graduate student.

Last fall, I came to NCSU to pursue a Masters. I have worked as a teaching assistant for a junior level course, Software Engineering. This course is one of the most challenging courses undergraduates face since they are asked to rapidly learn many new technologies and develop on a fairly large code base that they did not write. I facilitate two weekly 110-minute labs where I work with students as they learn many different Software Engineering concepts. I work with the other members of the teaching staff to develop program requirements and course materials. I also grade the projects of the students in my lab.