Hello and thanks for checking out my first blog post for this course! My name is Rachel Wozniak and this week I’ll be introducing myself and what my programming journey so far. Throughout the quarter, I’ll be selecting various programming topics to dive into, so stay tuned for weekly posts.

A little bit about me…

Before I get into my experience with coding, here’s a few fun facts about me:

• I am an avid tea consumer! As a close friend once said “most people are about 60% water but Rachel is 100% tea.” I even managed a bubble tea store for a while.
• My top film & tv genres are satire, dark comedy, and serial killer dramas based off of true stories. Most recently, I watched The Serpent on Netflix. As I’m always running out of shows to watch, recommendations are welcome!
• My most prized possession is my childhood cat’s skull, which I had cleaned by dermestid beetles (much to my parents’ horror) after she passed away last year. 

My path to programming

I received my first undergraduate degree from Santa Clara University in Philosophy. During my time there, I had the chance to explore a bit of the computer science world, both through philosophy courses (ex: ‘Philosophy in Science Fiction’ and ‘Ethics & Emerging Technology’) and CS electives like cryptography.

After graduating into the midst of the pandemic and struggling to find a satisfying job or career path, I decided to return to school and learn more than just the theory behind computer science. (The comic to the left is a pretty good depiction of how I felt searching for jobs as a recent philosophy grad during the peak of the pandemic.)

Time has flown by, and it’s hard to believe I’m entering my final quarter of the program. Along with finishing up my coursework this quarter, I will be continuing to work as an intern developer at my current company and spending a lot of time applying to full time positions.

I’m anticipating a busy few months with the many projects I’ll be working on this quarter, but I’m excited to get started. See you next week!