I didn't start in computer science. I taught my way to it.
For most of a decade I stood at the front of a classroom. I studied government administration and political science, earned a master's at UTEP, coordinated English programs — and taught the introductory programming courses where I first fell for the thing I now do full-time.
The pivot wasn't a clean break. It was nights, certificates, and small projects that kept getting less small. CS50. Computer science for AI and for cybersecurity. A portfolio that grew from toy apps into systems people actually depend on.
I also keep a steady thread of community-focused work: tools for classrooms, language programs, local workflows, and people solving practical problems. My personal projects and community contributions are free to use; I usually maintain them out of pocket, while some community-run efforts may accept donations independently.
Today I'm a Full-Stack AI Engineer at Creai, shipping computer-vision and backend services on AWS — and, on the side, finishing the Software Engineering degree I probably should have started fifteen years ago. Graduation: December 2028.
