I have never sat down and thought about who I am as a learner or professional, so being approached with this question, I felt the best way to do it was by creating this page.

Who am I as a learner? I am a person who loves learning. When I want to learn something, I go out and understand it. I have always been a self-taught, self-motivated person because the idea of learning something and being able to apply it or demonstrate it to someone else has always fascinated me. I was a 10-year-old who didn't like to read when I indeed became passionate about learning. At the age of 10, new forms of medium were coming out to learn. This happened to be a visual medium that stuck for me, and that is why I thought building a page was ideal because it was what I did when I first started to love the idea of learning truly. I am a visual learner and learning by application. I have learned a lot about everything from this approach of learning. Even though I enjoy reading now, I feel like things stick more when I can apply it to something. I have spent most of my time learning computer science and user experience, but that doesn't mean that is all I enjoy learning. I love learning something about everything! There is so much information out there, and life is so unique. How could you not be interested in learning things about other areas? Whether that be about the ever-growing universe or how to tile a bathroom. If I am approached with an opportunity to learn about something, I will. I learn because I am curious. I have always been curious about how and why things worked the way they did. My parents stopped buying me toys because I would take them apart and put them back together so I could figure out how it worked, sometimes that didn't end well, but I didn't care. I learn because I am curious, and I hope I can use my curiosity to educate others and spark their interest.

Who am I as a professional? I learned to grow up pretty quickly with not having much growing up. When I graduated high school, I joined the Army. I went to Iraq—opening my eyes to the real world at such a young age made me appreciate life and professional life more. As a professional, I am a person who will push myself to be the best of my ability. In my professional life, I can adapt. I feel like depending on who you are around, and you need to behave a certain way. It's like reading the room but professionally, whether that be with colleagues or students. There is a time to be serious, and there are times to enjoy yourself. I feel like I balance that well when the time calls for it. Currently, in my professional life, I am an instructor at Weber State University. I teach Computer Science and Web and User Experience. I was the program coordinator for the Web and User Experience and created the degree and curriculum from scratch. I did this because there is a need for it, and there were students who didn't enjoy just Computer Science. They wanted the design part as well. As a professional, I like to put the student's needs first if the opportunity is applicable, and in this case, I went full steam ahead. In my field, the learning never stops, and I love that. Technology is constantly changing, so the learning never stops, which is how I became passionate about teaching higher education. Always learning applies to my teaching. I am continually updating the content to give the students the most up-to-date knowledge on topics I cover. I feel like my passion for learning and giving the students the toolset needed for life is what makes me an educator.

I fell into teaching without teaching experience but a lot of experience in my topic. I feel like my experience is what has helped me with being an educator. I started this program in LDT because I don't know this area well, and there is always room for improvement. As we start, I have realized that I have unknowingly used some of the theories in my classes already. That makes me even more excited about the program. It shows me how much there is to learn and that I will take so much from this and be able to apply it to my classes. In what way? I'm not sure yet, but I'm already thinking of how to do it. Once I do, it will allow me to make a better impact on students, as that is my main goal. My goal is to keep learning so I can use my experience to inform students. I love learning, but I also love teaching just as much. Getting the information out there in a proactive way is just as important as learning it.

I am a lifetime learner!