In the Design Studio of the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management, we combine real-world problem solving and a support-driven teaching environment to give our students a taste of the software industry that they seek to join after graduation. In partnership with companies and charities throughout Nebraska and the wider USA, our students construct products over two semesters that are then delivered to the sponsoring organizations for genuine production deployment.As the Design Studio's GTA, I help our student teams overcome technical issues with their industry-sponsored projects, as well as provide them with insights into development trends and practical applications of techniques to keep their development lifecycle marching towards usable client deliverables.In addition to my responsibilities with the students, I leverage my own development experience to manage and maintain the Design Studio's internal software systems. From every bug to every new feature request, I design and implement the software that's necessary for our department to function day to day.Combining both areas of responsibility, I also apply personal system administration knowledge to manage our Azure account, provisioning and monitoring resources to both faculty and student teams on demand. It's a country mile from a humble homelab beginning, but between enterprise-grade firewalls and highly reliable server operating systems, the direct transfer of a hobby into our department ensures that our Azure resources are running smoothly 24/7.

As my undergraduate education drew to a close, I yearned for additional sources of professional development. Spurred by friends who wanted software for their own businesses, I entered into the freelance software engineering and consulting arena by building websites for their fledgling startups.From there, my business grew to taking on international clients, some of whom see thousands of customers and millions in profit per year. I leveraged my development expertise and desire to prove myself as a capable, dependable software engineer to build new programs and expand existing software to enhance the offerings of my clients. In one case, my additions to an existing in-house software portfolio saw forecasted profits starting at $30,000 per year, provided through a rapid turnaround service that saw average wireframe-to-production times of less than one week.My freelance consulting not only grew businesses, it also grew me. I learned the hard way how to manage my high-cost, limited availability time, concurrent to finishing my degree and working a day job. My exposure to everything from architecture implementation to operational infrastructure honed my ability to drive product development from start to finish in every business case that I took on.Without this experience, I wouldn't be the engineer that I am today, and not a day goes by that I'm not thankful for the opportunities that my many wonderful clients brought to me.