2020: A reflection and vision for the future

December 31, 2020

This year took an entirely different path than I could have ever imagined. It is easy to get to the end of the year and forget everything that happened, so I thought writing this was a good way to reflect on this year.

Education 🎓

The beginning of 2020 saw me entering my second quarter at the University of Washington. I am now a senior on track to graduate in Spring 2021. During my time at UW, I have enjoyed attending hackathons including the Women in Informatics Hackathon in January. One highlight of the year was flying to the Bay Area to take part in Stanford’s TreeHacks last February.

I also ran to be WINFO’s Hackathon Director and have been leading the planning and development of our first-ever virtual hackathon scheduled for January 15-17, 2021.

Career 👩🏼‍💻

In the Spring, I began working as a Data Science Intern for Madrona Venture Labs. In June, my team spun out into Zeitworks which aims to optimize our future workforce through machine learning. I worked part-time in addition to maintaining my full school schedule.

In the Summer, I began my internship as a Cloud Advisory Summer Analyst at Accenture. I helped my client migrate their infrastructure into modern environments. I am incredibly thankful to have received a return offer and plan to start full time as a Technology Analyst next year.

I also became an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant for the University of Washington’s INFO 200 class this Fall. As an INFO 200 TA, I help teach students information management, design thinking, user research, and how this all relates to technology. I look forward to continuing this position until I graduate in the Spring.

Upskilling 🍎

As an Accenture Intern, I had the amazing opportunity to pursue technical certifications. During the summer, I earned my Azure Fundamentals and AWS Cloud Practitioner Certifications.

I also participated in Microsoft’s C# Cloud Skills Challenge and was one of the 100 lucky winners of an ugly sweater and IoT kit.

Blog ✒️

After working throughout the Summer and Fall, my website went live last November. My website is aimed at helping students learn more about Azure and other technologies they may not have learned in school. Recently, I have been writing about my participation in the Seasons of Serverless challenge.

Speaking 🎤

I have always loved public speaking but this fall was my first time giving talks at conferences. If there is one silver lining to this year, the pandemic has given me the opportunity to give talks all over the world from the comfort of my home. This year, I spoke at the Granite State Code Camp, Virtual Azure Community Day, and Global AI Student Conference.

Health & wellbeing ⛰️

In August, I made it my goal to climb Mount St. Helens in the summer of 2021. This inspired me to start walking 10,000 steps a day. I went from averaging 50,000 steps and 20 miles a month at the beginning of the year to 200,000 steps and 100 miles a month by the end of the year.

Travel ✈️

Although I mostly stayed at home, I had the opportunity (and time) to do some perfect vacations for social-distancing. In May, my family did a roadtrip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park.

We also went on a five-day canoe trip down the Green River in Canyonlands National Park and went to Arches National Park for a day.

Looking forward 🔮

Here is a list of some of my goals for 2021 and beyond:

Write one article a week
Give one speaking or workshop engagement every month
Earn my Azure Administrator Associate Certification
Earn my Azure Developer Associate Certification
Walk over 200,000 steps every month