Home

I grew up in Bonita, California. This is a small suburb of San Diego. I have fond memories of the early years and taking part in fun activities: riding motorcycles, shooting my gun, riding my bike, and playing tennis.

I graduated from Bonita Vista High School and subsequently attended Southwestern College. Like many younger people, I had not decided on a academic major until my second year. The second year was when I discovered how enjoyable math and science could be. The genesis of how enjoyable math and science could be was when I took a electronics class with lab. I was also taking my second semester of calculus at the same time.

With my new found love of the sciences, I buckled down and studied hard so I could get into Cal Poly SLO.

I wanted to attend Cal Poly because of their highly respected engineering school and their "learn by doing" motto. I also loved the rolling hills of central California and the small town atmosphere.

I graduated from Cal Poly with a BS in Electrical Engineering. My first engineering position was with TRW Redondo Beach. I worked in the antenna lab as a RF test engineer. This was very fun for me because I got to go outside quite a bit and use HP test equipment. I also was able to apply electromagnetic concepts.

About the time the Berlin Wall fell, I was showing interest in software. The antenna lab(my department @ TRW), had a software team and a person that programmed the Scientific Atlanta equipment. I had done hardware work for almost six years. Consequently, I left TRW and enrolled in Computer Science graduate school @ San Diego State University.

I had almost finished my Master's work when I was hired by Qualcomm as a software engineer working in the OmniTRACS division -- this division has since been sold by Qualcomm.

During the last few years of my employment at Qualcomm, I heard presidential candidates and others in government say that the U.S. needed more math and science teachers. I decided to become a science teacher and enrolled at Chapman University(now Brandman).

My original teaching credential authorized me to teach physics. As I searched for my first teaching job, it became apparent that most high schools were looking, in order of need, the following: biology, chemistry and then physics.

Knowing this, I took the CSET's for all sciences and calculus. My first job was teaching earth science and life science. My second job was teaching just biology.

After teaching for a few years, I once again heard from politicians that computer science should be taught in K-12. I had always wanted to finish my masters in computer science. Thus, I took a few years off and re-enrolled at SDSU in the Master's of Computer Science. A few of the computer science professors where still there after all these years.

I graduated in December of 2015 with my Master's of Computer Science from SDSU. While many bay area high schools have computer science programs, San Diego has a dearth. I long for the day when San Diego area becomes enlightened and embraces computer science -- a skill desperately needed by U.S. corporations.

01/04/16

Google Sites

Report abuse