My path to continuing my education was long and winding. It started right after high school when I went to Boise State University to pursue a graphic design degree. I was always very creative and loved drawing. After the shell shock from the first year costs, I decided to enter the workforce and join a company that valued helping their employees finish their degree.

Unfortunately finding a job in graphic design that would also help pay for school was not that easy so I went to work for a local tech company, Micron Technology. They offered to pay for school but only for industry related degrees. I decided to take them up on their offer. I attended classes offered by the College of Southern Idaho in the electronics field. I continued to pursue my education through the 13 years that I worked at the semiconductor plant by either attending college courses or on-site training. This is also when my enjoyment and appetite for technology really started to evolve. I enjoyed the trouble shooting, problem solving and analyzing data. I worked my way up from an entry level operator to a Lead Engineer. On February 23, 2009, Micron announced that it would phase out production at its Boise facility.

The changing times made it tougher to realize that educational dream but I found another road that would allow me to continue my college career. It took me to the College of Western Idaho where I could merge my two passions, art and technology, into a new career in web design. I received my Associates Degree in Information Technology/Web Development on May of 2011.

I moved to Corvallis, Oregon that summer because of an amazing job opportunity for my wife. I quickly found work at the local newspaper as a web designer. After a year of work at the paper I was hired at Oregon State University. In the fall of 2014 I began taking classes again hoping to finish my graphic design degree. It is fascinating to me that my roads led me here, to a university…