A little history

 

I was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, and have had a connection to computers most of my life. I got my first PC-Clone in 1990, the Laser XT, it ran on MS-DOS and had no hard drive. I quickly found a program called GW-BASIC, which could be used to write programs in the BASIC language. I started making very basic programs for fun, but did not go much further than that. Nevertheless, that limited experience with programming left an indelible impression on me.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend college after high school, but instead went straight to work. This led to an opportunity to manage a restaurant at the age of 18, so I put my dreams of college on hold, and committed myself to the field of management. I managed several restaurants, directed the managers at multiple stores, and even became a trainer for International Dairy Queen. However, when my wife finished her Master’s degree, we decided it was time for me to go to college. What would I study? It was a no brainer…computers!

Originally when I started at Trident Technical College, I thought that I would major in programming. However, I decided I wanted more exposure to other aspects of IT, and this is why I chose to earn a degree as an Information Systems Specialist, with a focus on programming. This major offered a broad overview of many different technologies, from networking to PC repair. I have definitely found my niche as a programmer, and now that I have graduated, I want to distinguish myself from my competition. My skills as a programmer, combined with my history as a leader, are aspects that set me apart. Not only do I understand the technology, I also understand people and how to work with them to get the job done. How many future programmers can say that?