Work Experience
Technical Skills
HTML5 && CSS3
JavaScript
- jQuery
- AngularJS
- ReactJS
- Vue.js
- Node.js
- Express.js
PHP
- CakePHP
- WordPress
- Laravel
C#
- ASP.NET
SQL || MongoDB
SVN || Git
Education
Bachelor of Arts | College of Saint Benedict
2012 - 2016
- Majors: Biology, English Language and Literature
- Minors: Computer Science & French Language
- I studied at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University from August of 2012 to May of 2016, studying a variety of subjects across a liberal arts environment, included English, French, Sociology, Anthropology, Physics, Biology, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Evolution, and my eprsonal favorite, The Biology and Natural History of Maple Syrup (yes, really). While at CSB/SJU, I participated on the cross counrty running team, the Nordic ski club, All-College Choir, All-College Orchestra, was a DJ and Business Manager at the local campus readio station KJNB, founded ad presided over the CSBSJJU Pre-Vet Club, and worked at the library in the Inter-Library Loans department, where I was able to satisfy my love of books while also learning how to balance a job and classes, a skill that would be invaluable later in my studies and life.
Full Stack Developer Certificate | Prime Digital Academy
November 2016 - April 2017
- I built a full-stack Node.js web application to keep track of a user’s craft brewery experiences by recording a brew name, the brewery, the experience date, rating, and notes. I incorporated BreweryDB’s API to gather information about breweries, location services, beer names & descriptions, and other neat components. I used Firebase to handle authentication, SQL for my database, Express.js for middleware functions, and Bootstrap & Sass for styles.
- Working in a team of four developers, we created iSongCollect, an electronic cloud-based AngularJS web application to update pencil-and-paper song collections used in song collections for a specific, niche type of music educators. We used AngularJS, Express.js, and Node.js for our full-stack framework, Quill.js for content editing, Filestack to manage uploaded files, and Bootstrap.
- I personally built and debugged several individual features such as redirecting after login and print styling, and I learned a great deal about the process of envisioning and constructing of real-world full-stack software projects.
Front-End Development Certificate | FreeCodeCamp, 2016
October 2015 - December 2016
General Studies | University of Minnesota - Duluth
Summer Terms 2014 & 2015
I undertook a rigorous, accelerated path of study at UMD in my quest to become a veterinarin. I took Inorganic and Organic Chemistry to fulfill those prerequisites for entrance to veterinary medical school, as well as Probability and Statistics to add another maths course to my existing Calculus skills. The courses I took over two summer terms at UMD were challenging and exhausting as I worked two jobs to save money and studied on breaks at those jobs, but I gained a lot of tangible and intangible experience while I was learning these subjects, and I am proud of my accomplishments at UMD.
- Inorganic Chemistry I & II
- Organic Chemistry I & II
- Probability & Statistics
Activities & Interests
The Joy Project
April 2019 - Present
I put my passion for web development and expertise in WordPress & PHP to work as I direct creation of and updates to internal and external websites and software programs, looping in my knowledge of Adobe services. Using my skills in writing that I've developed and honed over the years, I regularly update site content and performing regular back-ups of data. I continually seek out more effective strategies for programming and/or hardware, according to organizational needs.
MSP Women Who WordPress
August 2018 - Present
As one of two MSP Women Who WordPress Co-Organizers, I helped come up with and set topics for monthly meetings, hosted and assisted with meetups, and tutored attendees in WordPress development.
Developer Conferences:
I enjoy attending these conferences as I get the chance to meet and speak with developers at all levels and all walks of life, senior, junior, mid, front end, back end, DevOps, CTOs, team leads, across all industries and areas of work. It's always amazing to me how many of us there are and how diverse our field really can be.
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OpenSource North - June 2018
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WordCamp MSP - August 2017
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FileMaker DevCon - July 2017
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GlitchCon - May 2017
Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine
Innovative Minds Partnering to Advance Curative Therapies (IMPACT) 2016 Research Challenge
October 2015 - March 2016
- I performed collaborative research and analysis to write a proposal hypothesis and testing-treatment strategy to answer the question: "What is the non-genetic cause of bipolar disorder?"
- Our hypothesis: A traumatic experience during juvenile development results in cell death, activating the inflammatory response in the brain. Following stimulation of the inflammatory process, cytokines are released, disrupting the concentration of dopamine and serotonin.
- My partner and I placed in the top seven competition teams and were invited to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN to deliver an oral presentation of our research, where we were able to meet the nation's leading researchers, physicians, and clinicians, and tour the facilities.
College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University Pre-Vet Club
February 2015 - May 2016
- President & Founder - Organized motivated members interested in veterinary medicine; liaison between members and pre-vet faculty, admissions representatives, and veterinarians.
KJNB Radio Station
September 2013 - May 2016
- Vice President & Business Manager - Created yearly budget and presented at managers' meetings; worked with leaders of other media clubs to coordinate events and projects
Volunteer Youth Coach: DuluthXC Nordic Ski Program (Kidski), Duluth, MN
December 2008 - March 2015
- I coached kiddos ages 5-7 in Nordic skiing. I helped them improve ski skills through games and activities, as well as lessons and exercises to demonstrate proper techniques and helpful tips and tricks. I learned to have patience with unhappy or unwilling young skiers, and was challenged to find ways to encourage participation.
About
Hello! My name is Catherine. I'm a software engineer in Minnesota with experience working with JavaScript, PHP, and C#. I have worked with a wide variety of technologies, frameworks, and libraries.
I have learned valuable lessons in my career as both a contractor and full-time employee, and I am excited to continue learning as a developer and growing into my career wherever it takes me. I am always excited about jobs and workplaces where my talents can not only be put to work, but can soar.
I have been successful working on teams that provide support, peer programming opportunities, and self-governing independence. I appreciate being able to ask my coworkers for help or advice when I'm out of ideas, but I strongly value the skills I gain when I am forced or driven to hunt down solutions to my own tasks, problems, and questions. As a self-taught programmer with some formal education, I have been able to benefit from both guided problem solving and independence.
I’ve had the opportunity to work in several different workplaces in the three short years of my professional career. While this certainly has been less stable than crunching away at the same job for the last two years, it has afforded me a wealth of experiences that I believe would have taken much longer to garner had I stayed in one place. I’ve gotten to work at agencies, as an in-house developer, and freelancing/contracting, and as such, I have a clear picture of what works for me and what doesn’t. I know the kind of work environment where I can do my best work, and even though this has come at the cost of painful realizations, soul searching, and trial-and-errors aplenty, I’ve grown through the hard times and losses, learned invaluable lessons about both this industry and myself, and I bring the honesty and truth with which those struggles and successes have equipped me to every interview, work day, and task at hand.
I have found boundless success working on teams that provide support, peer programming opportunities, and self-governing independence. I appreciate being able to ask my coworkers for help or advice when I'm out of ideas, but I strongly value the skills I gain when I am driven & inspired to hunt down solutions to my own tasks, problems, and questions. As a self-taught programmer with some formal education, I have been able to benefit from both guided problem solving and independence.
I value clear expectations and boundaries of a job; I have experienced both desirable respect and great frustrations with this in the past, and I am always searching for a workplace where my career goals and desires (as they align with the expectations of my job) are respected. I can't say I love a work environment where I'm forced to sandwich myself into a job that barely fits well instead of being able to thrive as a wholesome fit, valuable in my contributions and encouraged to take on challenges that increase my worth to myself, my career, my coworkers, my employer, and my community.
I have explored, tested, and refined my personal ability to work remotely; coming from a freelancing past, I've had both successes and failures in this endeavor as I've tested services, methods, tools, and styles to make sure I'm being as performant, effective, and communicative as possible. I have found that remote work has the potential to remove or minimize the standard distractions I've encountered in the traditional office place. I have found great value in working on-site because I've learned to come out of my shell and ask questions while interacting with coworkers away from my keyboard; it's nice to have faces associated with the people I work with, and not just emails or Slack messages.