After growing up in a small rural Pennsylvania town, I earned a physics degree as a first-generation college student and briefly studied toward a Ph.D. before leaving for a seven year adventure in Shanghai, China. There, I taught physics before founding a company and leading a team that advised students aiming to study in the U.S. After returning, I briefly taught math in Washington, DC before pursuing a full-time career in software engineering in Los Angeles, CA where I worked extensively with "big" data. I have since relocated to Philadelphia, PA where I work fully remote.