Curiosity First

The biggest factor in a lot of the life decisions I have made is curiosity. It is a fundamental part of life that we, as people, continue to learn and grow. Without curiosity, that wouldn't be possible! I've always been interested in learning how things work, breaking them, and putting things back together. I wouldn't be who I am today if not for curiosity.

Home

I grew up in Spokane, Washington. I love the climate and the beauty of the Spokane river, and living there has shaped who I am today. My school district provided me with all the opportunites to explore my interests. Band, Computer Science, or anything else that I wanted to try would be supported. That's also where I met some of my best friends.

Photo by VisitTheUsa.com

My Passions

First thing to clarify here; I am a huge nerd. Computers and technology have always fascinated me, for as long as I can remember. I competed in Lego League as a little guy, and my team made it to nationals, twice! I competed in Invent Washington and was the three time Washington State grand champion, and went to the national level twice. Starting in middle school, I got involved with the band program, where I learned how to play drums, mallet percussion, and bass. I continued to play music throughout high school and into college, as a part of the Vandal Marching Band and University of Idaho Jazz Band. Of course, I'm still interested in computers. I've competed in a handful of game jams, made a few discord bots, and generally love anything involving rocks that we tricked into thinking!

Off To College

My college decision process was in interesting one. For 3 years, I was completely sold on going to DigiPen, a Computer Science school near Seattle. I got accepted to the school and their jazz band 1, and started looking for scholarships to cover the $60,000 / year cost of attendance. As time went on, I figured that I wouldn't be able to pay that much. Fortunately, my high school was attending the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival that year. After getting to see the University, and knowing how good both the music and computer science programs are, I decided to attend the University of Idaho.

Photo by USNews.com

My goals

I remember Christmas day, probably 10 or more years ago, when my sister and I received a Wii. Not only was the Wii my first experience with gaming, but it was one of my first experiences with computers as well. I fell in love with the motion controls and how immersive they felt. Many years later, I bought an Oculus Quest 1. For the first time in a while, I got that same feeling. True immersion, and feeling like I am in the game, not just spectating it. These experiences are what convinced me to become a game developer. I want to work at Valve, and create something in the Portal or Half-Life franchise. Alternatively, I want to work at Stress Level Zero, and make revolutionary VR games that completely changed what VR was capable of in my mind.