I was born in the city of Taishan in China, but I grew up in San Francisco after my family immigrated here when I was two years old. For me San Francisco is home, and I love its diverse people and beautiful parks, so I have returned to the city after college.

I studied Business Administration at Northeastern University and then went on to pursue a business career that led me through a wide range of industries and work environments. My curiosity and eagerness to learn has brought me to make a big decision in my career - switch paths and enter the field of tech.

My first exposure to coding was in a programming class back at Lowell High School. The memory is hazy, but we worked on coding tasks, including simulating a dice and recreating classic games like Minesweeper, Asteroids, and others. I remember it as a fun class with its annoying bits of debugging, but at the time I did not see it as a career choice ... but things change in life.

After exploring business for several years, I thought more and more about doing something else. I realized that I am better suited to working behind the scenes, especially behind a computer. I came across the Web Development program with Career Foundry and decided to go for it. I find peace in solving puzzles, and there are many puzzles to be encountered in the field of web development. Although frustrating at times, it would be rewarding when it is finally resolved. I enjoy building things and seeing the results of my work, which is why after getting exposed to both front and back end services, I am seeking to focus on the front end, at least in the beginning of my new career.

Outside of work, I enjoy solving puzzles (jigsaw, word, number, and logic puzzles), hiking, bouldering, and listening to music. Hikes with nice views of mountains or water (waterfalls, rivers, streams, lakes) calm me (fun fact: this helped inspire the AI-generated design of the favicon and logo I used in this portfolio).

I also love traveling and wish to do more of it, and relatedly I find it fascinating to learn about different cultures and languages. Maybe part of the reason why I am interested in coding is because it is like learning a new language and there are many problems (think puzzles) waiting to be solved. As someone with a strong growth mindset, I am excited by the fact that there will always be more for me to learn in this field no matter how experienced I become.