For a long time, Dennis Desmornes wondered which career path would help him find fulfillment and purpose. Initially, he considered becoming a fashion designer. With prior experience in designing custom shirts for customers, he believed that fashion was a field worth pursuing — so, he bought research books on color theory and design principles to…
Melanie Ponce , Abigail Limpioso, and Robert Torres didn’t know each other prior to enrolling in UCF Coding Boot Camp, but they became fast friends when they were assigned to the same group project team. The trio were taking class remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and were looking for a way to channel their lockdown-inspired frustration. They knew they…
Looking out the window of his apartment in St. Petersburg, Florida, Christian Wolfe watched as cars lined up outside the local food pantry, waiting for government-subsidized groceries. The community he lives in is heavily employed by hospitality, so people were hit hard by COVID-19. “There are a lot of folks who need assistance right now,” he said. …
Prior to his classes at UCF Digital Marketing Boot Camp going online amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Evan Lagerloef’s day-to-day schedule was already demanding. On a typical weekday, he might wake up at 5:30 a.m. and hit the gym before heading to his job in the marketing department at Dixon Ticonderoga — makers of the No. 2 pencils we…
As a child, Lee Warrick loved logic games. Come college, he found himself gravitating towards coding. “Software development is very similar to a puzzle,” he explained. “You’re given a problem and chip away until you reach a solution.” But an uninspiring computer science department caused Lee to abandon the field entirely — and put his programming dreams…
Jennifer Culumber was pretty tech-savvy and knew her way around a computer. She was also a great communicator, having spent over 12 years as a speech language pathologist for Florida’s Orange County School district. But when she got an itch to change her career, she wasn’t sure what new jobs she could even qualify for. With…
After selling the tech start-up he co-founded, Charles Gedeon wondered what to tackle next. While handling operations at his company, he’d always been fascinated by the work done by the coders on his team, so that seemed like a good place to start. “That whole process pulled me in,” Charles said. “So I started dabbling…
Sarah Niemann has always enjoyed the challenge of jumping conceptual hurdles. “It takes a specific kind of person to want to continually shoulder problems and think in a solution-oriented way,” she said. As a recent college graduate with a business entrepreneurship degree, Sarah sprinted into a role with Employment Technologies, a technology-focused simulation company. She ended up…
Austin Sharman was in high school when he first started learning programming. He enjoyed using Visual Basic to create video games during the first semester, but it was the second semester of coding in Java that truly sparked his interest. “The video game aspect of it didn’t appeal to me as much,” Austin said. “The second…
Networking, linking up, grabbing a cup of coffee—whatever you call them, human connections are all about building a stronger sense of community. To Madison Tift, building those connections is what makes life worth living. Madison considers the places he’s been, the people he’s met, and the organizations he’s been involved with badges of honor. For the…
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