About Me

Journey

I started coding in elementary school after watching my brother make Scratch projects. Since then, I’ve done five coding summer programs during high school, taken AP Computer Science, had internships at DePaul University, Epsilon, and NASA, graduated as a Computer Science major at UIUC, and enrolled in DePaul University’s Health Informatics Master’s program. Now, I’m looking to find a role that will continue my interest in the field I’ve been part of most of my life.

Below is a mostly-comprehensive timeline of my experiences with coding and web development from elementary school up to college.

Timeline Before College

2011

I started using Scratch to make my own projects.

After watching my brother and experimenting with his Scratch projects on our shared janky laptop, I wanted to make my own. One of my first projects was a game where a fire breathing dragon had to collect gems (poorly-drawn blue dots) without touching the spikes (random squiggles).

2013

I created my first website.

I helped organize a fundraiser called The Animal Olympics, with the proceeds being donated to the World Wildlife Fund. I made a website for this fundraiser using an online website creator. We raised over $300, exceeding the wildest dreams of my eleve-year-old self.

2015

I took my first computer science class.

During eighth grade, a new elective dropped: computer science. I took it eagerly. Although much of the class was modifying existing Python code, I was able to create my own programs, as well as add several new features to a game.

2017

I attended Emagination STEM Camp and DePaul University’s Summer Academy.

In the summer after my freshman year of high school, I attended Emagination Tech Camp at Lake Forest College. There, I spent several hours each day learning programming fundamentals in C#. My final project was a text-based interactive Pokemon game where the player adventured around a map to eventually defeat and become the new champion. After this, I attended DePaul University’s Game, Cinema, and Animation Summer Academy, where I used my newly learned C# skills to code in Unity. A team and I created a first person shooter where the player had to defend their island from an income horde of evil snails.

2018

I attended Emagination STEM Camp and a Girls Who Code Mobile App Development program.

After my sophomore year in high school, I returned to Emagination STEM Camp once more, this time learning Java. Because of my time learning C# the summer before, I had no trouble picking up this new language. My final project was another text-based adventure game where the player would adventure, collect items, fight enemies, and become stronger. Then, I attended a Mobile App Development through Girls Who Code, where I learned the basics of Swift and XCode.

2019

I attended the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program.

Before my senior year of high school, I participated in the 11-week Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program. There, I learned valuable coding skills, industry knowledge, and networked with many experienced professionals. We learned Python, robotics in Arduino C, and the basics of web development. Towards the end of the program, three other participants and I developed a web application designed to be a free tool for high school seniors to help with the college application process. I was in charge of much of the back-end functionality, including using the College Scorecard API to get the most recent information. We presented this project to dozens of peers, parents, professionals, and employees at our location’s company.

2019-2020

I took AP Computer Science.

In my senior year of high school, I took AP computer science. Aided by my several previous experiences with code, the class was relatively easy for me, so I sometimes made it a challenge to complete labs and machine problems faster and more accurately than all my peers. We used Java and BlueJ to learn about programming fundamentals and basic algorithms and data structures.

2020

I enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, majoring in Computer Science.

May 2024

After four difficult yet rewarding years, including a pandemic, new friends, countless hours in the library, several internships, and much more, I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.

January 2025

After some exploration, including heading down to Florida to intern at NASA, I decided to further my education at DePaul University in the Master’s in Health Informatics program.

Hobbies

Outside of coding, I enjoy creative writing, ice skating, reading, walking, and designing various things in my free time.