Collegiate Details

Here are the details of important resume points or you can return to the resume summary.  This is my attempt to tell you what my items entailed, but know that this does not include my failures… and some of those took as much time as my successes.

Education | Experience | Honors & Activities | Web Projects |

  Education

I spent four and a half semesters at the University of Texas at Austin working on an MIS/Business Honors degree.  I originally tried to major in Computer Science as well, but decided against it because there was no overlap with my MIS degree and it would have added too much time to my stay at the university.  I also have a minor in finance and spent a great deal of hours taking courses in Communications and Asian Studies.  Here are some details about my two major fields of study.

  • Management Information Systems (MIS) – At the time of my graduation, the University of Texas had an overall undergraduate business program ranked #5 in the nation by US News and World Report while the MIS program was ranked #4 in the nation.  MIS is kind of like a combination of Computer Science and Business, with a focus on databases, networks, and consulting.  It focuses more on client interaction than coding.  Its primarily goal is to give students an effective framework for dealing with problems in the constantly changing world of technology.  
  • Business Honors Program (BHP) – This is an advanced undergraduate program in the Business School which provides intense application of business skills in order to answer reality-based scenarios and situations.  By using Harvard business cases and various other tools, the BHP provides undergraduates with an MBA type experience through its special classes.  Teamwork is emphasized throughout the business school, but is taken to a new level within this program.

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  Experience

  • Freelance ASP / Cold Fusion Development – Worked on several small projects involving getting small businesses up to speed on the web.  Some projects involved starting from scratch and developing new systems from the ground up that could be updated and used by people without technical backgrounds.  Some projects were revisions of existing code that was either broken or no longer needed.  Streamlining systems to remove repetitive input was also popular, and I also had a few projects utilizing new technology to replace process steps.  The best projects were those that I had complete control over and where the client was willing to adjust to the technology.  The worst projects were definitely the ones the required revisions to existing code, because most of this code was poorly documented.
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  • IBM SurfAid E-Commerce Consulting – Interacted with clients on a daily basis on using complex data mining tools to help them get the most out of their websites.  Although there was some AIX programming involved, most of the work revolved around maintaining these client tools.  This was a wonderful experience and somewhat shocking as well.  It’s amazing how much information is recorded about a visitor activities on websites.  When I left the company in January so I could focus on my school work, SurfAid was just about to release version two of their tool which would take their analysis tools to a new level.  They suffered a bit when the tech market struggled in the second quarter of 2001, but I’m certain that they will someday have the best site analysis tool in the market.  Its going to happen because of the strength of their people more than the strength of their application.  SurfAid rules!! ( Back to Top )
  • DOS / UNIX Tutor for AT&T and Lucent Technologies – While I was working with SAIC at Cape Canaveral, a co-worker let me know about a teaching opportunity in Orlando.  I spent some time on the side summer of 1999 teaching AT&T and Lucent employees about the wonders of DOS and UNIX.  It was fun and pretty entertaining considering that I’m not certain if they will ever make use of either OS.  If nothing else it gave us all a new appreciation for Windows and how simple things are now comparatively.  The students were fun and the pay was great.  I hope to pursue more teaching opportunities in the future with other applications and operating systems.
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  • SAIC Contract at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – This was the coolest and best job I have ever had, and it may have spoiled all future jobs for me by setting my standards so high.  I originally had nothing planned for the summer due to the fact that I had been lazy in getting my resume out, but my roommate at the Carothers dormitory at the University hooked me up with a job working for his father at Cape Canaveral in Florida.  I got to live with his terrific family at a beach house and it was wonderful.  They’ve become part of my extended family now, and I hope that someday I can return the favor.  Anyway, the job initially was to recreate the internal website in a form that was Netscape compatible.  The entire site worked fine in Internet Explorer, but a general (or some high ranking officer) at the base wanted to use the site in Netscape.  It turned out that it was a simple problem, and I got to work on some other more complicated Cold Fusion projects after it.  I created a basic inventory system for the IT department and developed a few dynamic pages for shuttle parts.  Along with having the best boss in the world, and being surrounded by an incredibly cool group of people, I also got to spend time on the beach after work.  I learned some wave boarding (although I’m terrible at it), and had an awesome place to jog along the shoreline.  I also saw several shuttle launches, including the one involving the first female shuttle commander in space.  Seeing a night launch for the first time is still the most awe-inspiring experience I have ever had.  I don’t know if anything will ever top this!!
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  • computer moms International– This was my first real tech job experience and it was great.  The company had just started and we were its first real set of interns.  The company was based on the concept of turning ordinary people into computer moms who would go out and train people on software applications.  I was the web designer for the group and helped out on technical support for the computer moms on call.  Eventually, I got to hook all the computers up to a network and act as a sys admin.  It was great, but I never really expected the company to go anywhere because the quality of its franchisees (the computer moms) was all across the board (some were great, others were not great at all).  I think its a tribute to their management team that they are still around and successful!!
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  • Original Smoothie Company – This was the weirdest job I ever had.  There wasn’t really much work, and I could spend all day drinking smoothies but it wasn’t very rewarding and it was sometimes downright boring.  I would actually ask the managers if I could go out and wear the Original Smoothie Company full-size sign and wave customers to our location.  This was fun for a while, but everyone in the store was bored and the managers didn’t seem too interested as well.  I still have a craving for smoothies though!!
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  • Manhattan Bagels – First job ever.  It was a great experience for me because the store was extremely well run, and there wasn’t a moment that I felt bored.  It was really a learning experience for me because I had never ever mopped and swept floors before, and I had to embarrassingly learn how to do those things on the job (its tough if you’ve never done them before… all I ever really did at home was vacuum and mow the lawn).  The store had been in existence for about a year, but the management had gotten the art of bagel-making down to an art.  I enjoyed the manual labor of the job just because it always felt like I was doing something… a feeling that’s sometimes missing with tech jobs (the pay may be ten times better, but you sometimes don’t feel useful 🙁 ).    

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  College Honors & Activities

Since most of these were through University of Texas organizations that I’ve had the pleasure of working with, I’ve jotted down their mission statements and my involvement with them.

  • Business Honors Program – This is an advanced undergraduate program in the Business School which provides intense application of business skills in order to answer reality-based scenarios and situations.  By using Harvard business cases and various other tools, the BHP provides undergraduates with an MBA type experience through its special classes.  Teamwork is emphasized throughout the business school, but is taken to a new level within this program.  I served as a peer mentor during my sophomore and junior years and helped get freshman adjusted to the rigors of this program.  I was also part of its NASA Project Team that was committed to coming up with a marketing plan for a trip to Mars!!
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  • Cabinet of College Councils – This organization was founded in 1973 to bring together the student councils from every college across the University of Texas and represent the entire University student body in academic affairs.  For one semester, I served as a co-chair for the Students for Academic Integrity committee which is responsible for informing students about academic policies and promoting honesty and integrity within classrooms.  We invented and established the groundwork for the Eyes of Texas campaign which would use our school song and mascot to promote academic integrity.  Although we didn’t have much time to get it going, future committees took the idea to another level.
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  • Case Competitions – Case Competitions are extemporaneous tests of business knowledge and creativity in a time-constrained challenge against other teams.  Typically, they involve a Harvard Business Case that describes a particular situation facing a company.  In the competition, teams are required to come up with a comprehensive solution or plan of action to assist the company in attaining its goals.  Usually these competitions last only a day, starting from the second you pick up the case till the time you present your solution.  Although it usually involves at least one sleepless night, its a very rewarding experience.  I participated in several of them over the course of my college career with many awesome teams.
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  • Men Against Sexual Assault – MASA is an organization dedicated to raising awareness of issues of sexual assault. It aims to accomplish this through education with a special emphasis placed on male responsibility. Its amazing that although men are primarily the perpetrators of sexual assault, most of the blame and responsibility is passed to women. Its ridiculous that females need to worry about what to wear and when to walk outside, while men are offered no information regarding this issue. MASA believes that male knowledge is the key to prevention of this societal injustice with the intent of preventing all types of sexual assault. I served as its Vice President of Public Relations and maintained its website while reaching out to the Austin community.
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  • Student Government – The University of Texas at Austin Student Government serves as the official student voice to the UT administration, the Board of Regents, and the Texas Legislature. Its mission is to earnestly represent the interests of students and increase student decision-making power, to improve campus life through the creation and continuation of viable and effective student services, to preserve and protect the traditions and legends of the University, and to support students and student organizations in their academic and community endeavors. To this end, new leaders are elected from and by the general student populace each spring, and bi-weekly assembly meetings are held to discuss issues, appropriate funds, and initiate projects.  My association with Student Government began with my unsuccessful run at the Two-Year-At-Large Position with the SERVE ticket.  I later joined the new administration as a co-chair for the Student Services committee.  As part of this committee, we created a new student handbook to help old and new students get the most out of the university.  I was later appointed to a Two-Year-At-Large position and spent a semester working on student issues.
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  • Student Volunteer Board – The UT Student Volunteer Board is a team of student leaders that provides service opportunities to a University Community of over 50,000. It increase awareness and promotes ongoing volunteerism to individuals and student organizations.  Initially, I served as one of its Alternative Spring Break chairs.  The Alternative Spring Break program involves coordinating a trip for a small group to an exotic location to perform community service.  The following year, I served as the Vice Chair for the board and created the University’s first community service portal – http://www.utvolunteer.org/ .  This organization is also very closely affiliated with Project 2000 and Project 2001, which were the largest single community service events ever at the University.  I worked as their web administrator and as one of their project coordinators.
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  • Texas Blazers – The purpose of the Texas Blazers is threefold: 1. to serve the University of Texas and Austin community through volunteerism 2. to uphold and promote University of Texas spirit and traditions 3. to provide campus leadership through involvement while maintaining high standards of academic excellence.  I served as this organization’s Vice-Chair of Community Service and was responsible for organizing all its community service activities.  I was also in charge of coordinating our outstanding mentoring program with a local high school male involvement project (the X-Y Zone).  Currently, through various scholarships and through our association with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the Texas Blazers contributes several thousand dollars to this great cause.
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  • Undergraduate Business Council – The Undergraduate Business Council is the official student council of the Red McCombs School of Business and is the link between students, faculty, and staff of the college.  The Council’s goal is to promote continuous improvement of the College of Business Administration by encouraging active participation in college affairs, improving the quality of education, and providing those services deemed to be in the best interest of business students.  I was elected as a representative for this organization during my freshman year and participated on its Informational Technology committee.  The following year, I became one of its community service coordinators and also chaired the Parent’s Day event for the College of Business Administration which was one of the largest programs of the council.  During my freshman and sophomore years, this organization was the paragon of remarkable leadership and is still a model of efficiency for me.
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  • Undergraduate Business Careers Association – Each year this organization sponsors and maintains two job fairs for the McCombs School of Business: Career Expo and Intern Expo. Career Expo takes place every September and includes over 150 companies and 1700 undergraduate business students. The purpose of this Expo is to expose students to companies who are hiring for full-time positions and for students to learn more about various career paths available after graduation. Intern Expo is primarily for companies looking to recruit students for summer internships. Over 65 companies and 1500 students attend Intern Expo, which takes place in early February of each year.  I served as this organization’s Chair of Technology and maintained its website.

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College Web Projects

Here is a list of projects that I worked on during my college years.

  • Career Labs – helped create this site with a group of MIS 374 students for a small company that had a career advancement seminar plan.  It was an awesome effort created by a truly fun and motivated bunch!! It was also my first real ASP project… all my other web database systems had been built around ColdFusion.
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  • Project 2001 Website – An offshoot of the past year’s Volunteer Council Webpage, this was an easy registration site for volunteers.
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  • Volunteer Council Website – This was a website I created for a new student organization that joined all the major volunteer organizations on campus. However this organization was dissolved after it was recognized that there was only one major event to rally around.
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  • Volunteer Board Website – My pride and joy was the creation of a central web location called utvolunteer.org that would inform all UT students about current volunteer opportunities from the volunteer center, volunteer board, volunteer council, and students for service learning.  The Project Reachout Registration section was another amazing database driven registration system that had to observe the people limits on specific projects and had little room for error.
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  • MASA Website – Created a nice website for a great new organization that was dedicated to educating men about the evils of sexual assault.  The current focus of rape is on the victim and not the usual perpetrators. By focusing on men’s beliefs and trying to get them to change their views on the issues, we thought we could make a difference.  This website illustrates our views and lets people sign up for our listserv.
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  • NASA Means Business Website – This website was created for a marketing project to get people excited about going to Mars.  It did some truly exciting things and was an awesome example of the powers of a database driven survey tool.  However, one of my team members was almost sued by a professor (who was affiliated with our project) because she worked with a survey research company and they were worried that she gave me info about their tools.  Their tools were not even similar and not even database driven, and I was extremely angry.  Even though they realized this later, they delayed our use of this tool enough to disallow its use in the competition, which we lost.  I’m not one for revenge, but I’m aching for the day I can return the favor (perhaps when I’m a rich alumni and a few words can send a pair of wretched professors to the depths of misery).
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  • BEST ’99 Website – Created a basic registration website for the Business Excellence Starts Today freshman orientation program.
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  • Parent’s Day ’99 Website – The first online registration system for the Business School’s Parents Day Program.  It really made things easy for myself and my committee and it was a truly remarkable part of an incredible program.
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  • Career/Intern Expo ’99 Website – This was the first example of my current website style.  This design has been the cornerstone of all my future efforts, and was truly comparatively gorgeous when it came out.  I think I saw the style on an incredible Final Fantasy 7 Website and started to imitate it, especially the verdana font.
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  • Computer Moms Website – This is a website that I heavily modified to add content… was my first real web design job.  The company is still in existence which really surprises me because I didn’t think too highly of their business model.  Only in America!!  The current website is very different from the style I worked on, but its still pretty decent.

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