ABOUT ME

On 17th December 1989 the very first episode of The Simpsons was broadcast. A lesser-known fact is that over on the other side of the Atlantic, I was born. Growing up, Bart, Lisa and Maggie had Santa's Little Helper; I had Penguin the guinea pig.

In 2009 I migrated north of the border to study English Literature, Language and Latin at the University of Edinburgh. On graduating, in the absence of better ideas, I went to work in the London insurance market, where I worked in risk and financial modelling (if a hurricane hits Miami, how much money do we lose?).

4 years later I faced up to the fact that insurance wasn't really my thing, and turned down an offer of a sabbatical to quit outright and seek pastures new. I had always wanted to live in a non-English speaking country and learn a new language, and in light of the Brexit referendum result, 2017 seemed like a good time to do that.

Off I went to Italy, Rome to be precise, with some suncream and a minor Duolingo-induced thumb sprain. Here I've spent two years teaching English and learning Italian. I've enjoyed this, but it's never been the long-term plan. On and off, between pizzas and ice creams, I've also been teaching myself to code.

This year I've been a volunteer with Italy's first cohort of Code Your Future students, who are refugees or disadvantaged Italians. As part of the Education Team, I'm responsible for curriculum delivery, e.g. co-ordinating mentors, promoting a collaborative learning environment, and monitoring student progress.

I've had fun and learnt a lot from the course prerequisites and building this page. Even if I don't make it to the F&C Winter '19 cut, I'm excited to keep learning and to find a way to turn these skills from a hobby to a livelihood.

I'm applying to Founders and Coders because I want to learn, because the collaborative style appeals to me, and because of its policy of inclusivity. I have largely been studying by myself, as there is not much of a learner meet-ups community in Rome. I would like to learn how to work on projects in teams, as I think this is fundamental for professional coding, and I think that people produce better results when they work together. This was something I really enjoyed about Codewars: seeing the solutions of other users when you solve a challenge was a great way of learning from the different knowledge and style of others. On inclusivity: a few years ago I was struck by an observation that, although it affects us all, the digital future is being designed and built by a small, unrepresentative group. Unless the tech sector strives to be as inclusive as possible, it is inadvertantly disenfranchising many people. I hope that in improving my own technical skills, I will be able to help others too.

An ASCII image of Colosseum that I coded