I was first introduced to computers like most Xennials in grade school by something called “Logo Writer“. This was probably around grade school along 3rd or 4th grade. This program allowed the user to move a turtle graphic around the screen that could output a vector line with basic input commands. It was a like a HUGE deal back then as PCs were not quite yet in the home and programs like this were not in every school system. Can vaguely remember the teacher also having a physical turtle robot about the height of a child’s chair that you could sync with the computer via a ribbon cable so the commands carried over to this device could make those same moves in real life.
However there was a bit of a roadblock in my way tho to participate in an after-school special program the elementary school offered for those that were interested in learning and playing with the device. I wanted to join this group so much in this activity but you had to have a partner to work with. Few things blocked me along the way. First, the science teacher who was in charge of this curriculum would not allow me to work alone without a partner even when my mother pleaded with staff about my interest. Second, I was such an introvert in grade-school and felt like quite an outcast. (Backstory: was already pretty tall for my age in which people mistakenly thought I was staff at the school all the time. My height also scared my peers so I did not have many friends. Already made fun of for wearing glasses and was also out of school a lot because of medical issues. Being sick all the time with continuous sinus infections issues which resulted in having my tonsils/adenoids removed and tubes placed in my ears. Because of that, I missed a lot of schooling and had to take special classes with an instructor on material I missed out on early childhood development). So I missed out on a lot of time with my peers growing up.
The one thing I wanted to focus on, I was stopped due to a silly rule which prevented me from not being able to join. Was also brushed aside because the science teacher running this program said I was the only girl that showed interest and explained that he had more boys interested in the course and who were already partnered off and the class was getting rather full. That teacher then informed my mother to try to put me in some other activity to hold my interest and maybe something in sports because of my height. (That was quite an absurd comment in the 80s now that I look back upon it and as you can tell stuck with me. All the more reason for women to be represented in tech.)
Around this same timeframe I think we also had access to basic word processor and a program called “Mavis Teaches Typing” to equip us with skills needed later in life where PCs were becoming ever more present. So I had enjoyed that course and was a pretty fast typer and liked the interactivity of the game.
Honestly do not ever remember growing up and playing “Oregon Trail” but did know of it. That game is mostly tied to the Xennial population but I never encountered it.
So fast forward to junior high, PCs were in every school and home by now however going “online” was the new thing! (At this time our first family home computer was a Packard Bell desktop with an intel 486 processor and a 28.8bps modem running Win3.1 – so internet was pretty bleak back then.) AOL was literally a course to take in my first year of junior high school. Thought this was rather cool experience because I had an early childhood without knowing about technology initially but we were a generation starting to grow up with it. This was like the early 90s so things were starting to look pretty cool with graphic interfaces. AOL dashboard was probably the only thing I saw with a Graphic User Interface at that time that grabbed my attention. All these call to action buttons and pages on the web that had a little graphical flourish to them interested me and esp if they animated. Also the ability to connection with others through various community chat groups where you could discuss popular topics. I understood and grasped the power of communication by then because the internet was a medium in which to help people find difficult information they were looking for. Because I saw the awesome power of how the internet helped bring people closer to finding information they wanted, I wanted to be part of that. Also wanted to learn how-to create those graphics and interactions as well.
(Eventually I would know about Netscape/IE browser and IRC chat and other areas but it came a little bit later. I understand the intro to AOL is rather funny today but it was considered “safe” back then. LOLs)
The only heavy graphics stuff I would remember seeing was mostly with my brother and his friends playing on console gaming devices such as Nintendo, so that really didn’t intrigue me back then.
The only games that I found interesting for a very brief period of time on the computer was 7th Guest, Myst, The Sims, and Final Fantasy VII. Although none held my interest for very long and dropped off my radar. Role playing games just had a more prepared path for the users journey to a certain point but it just did not sustain my interest. So I really did not see myself going into game design.
By around high-school I was able to understand that applications like Adobe Photoshop were fundamental in learning how to create graphics and using Adobe Dreamweaver to learn HTML to piece together a webpage and to create interactions. Was literally using Yahoo! Geocities to piece together a landing page and trying to understand what internet hosting was. Knew I wanted to major in arts/communications with a technology piece behind it but had no idea what colleges would have a curriculum in it. Several colleges that visited the high-school I attended and presented themselves to the student body only had courses maybe on basic communications studies or more computer science majors that focused on application use and at the machine core language level in C# or C++ and such. I just knew they were not the right fit so I had to start looking and discovering on my own.
(Although in high-school I did take a C++ course but there was an unfortunate issue there with the instructor. She did not teach our class and informed us to read and follow along with the book material on our own. Unfortunately they were close to retirement and just did not put effort into teaching for some reason. Had this same instructor for another course that year and dropped out of her class quickly for another instructor. Word got around by the student body and let’s just say that instructor got reprimanded but very very late in the game.) Just another derailment.
Also during this timeframe of around 1999 I’ve heard of P2P apps like Napster/Limewire/BitTorrent and were running the gamut. So access to music and “other” resources were a treasure to start learning about other new mediums.
When I started to look at schools I knew that I did not see myself going through a 4 year degree program likely. Because what you learned coming out of college you were most likely going to be behind on in knowledge in the real world.
So first college of many I started to look at was MassArt, at the time it was more focused on traditional art in areas such drawing & painting, photography, sculpture and so forth but did not focus on digital arts quite yet. See I had those traditional college like courses already in high-school so I was not looking to expand further on the traditional side. Next up was Katherine Gibbs College which came up as a possible place of interest, they were known as a secretarial school but did not quite have a curriculum that I was expecting. They had an arts program but the technology side was very basic at most. Next, I started coming across certificate programs through satellite colleges like Clark University around my area. They had a bit larger curriculum structure in learning the basics in html, css and javascript and other programming studies but did not quite cover an area in digital arts just yet. At that time I was possibly thinking of taking certification courses as a supplement to a regular art college degree.
However during a visit to my high-school headmaster guidance counselor office I was recommended to look through several pamphlets for which they accumulated from various other colleges in their filing drawer after trying to explain what it was that I was after. Ran across a college form for a place called Mass Communications College. They seemed to have studies that were in my area of interest when I started to look at the college website however they were more of a broadcasting college for tv and audio production but had some new courses starting in the area of internet media.
I waited about two-years after high-school to enter college because I just could not settle on what I wanted to do in the internet medium and needed more time to research this new career path. Was working for a retailer called CompUSA (which is sort of like BestBuy but only focused on PCs). I worked there for over 7+ years and learned a lot on my own on how to build machines and debug issues and learn about all sorts of new peripheral components and such. I was in like nerd heaven because I got to play and learn about all sorts of new devices that came onto the market! Also a lot of the tech knowledge I grew up and learned about from watching on TV programs such CNet and TechTV/G4 so there was so much content there. I was also very active in reading a lot of tech manual on web dev and had an active membership to lynda.com at the time (training material on cd-roms).
At the time when I was ready to look at Mass Comm College again I found out they got bought out by a private institution called the Art Institute, this announcement intrigued me so I had to look at this a bit more closely. When I came across their curriculum it was exactly the perfect match to what I was looking for, graphic arts and coding. Although they called this course “Multimedia and Web Design” ~ this course also covered some video/audio production as well. I quickly toured the campus and thought the structure of the courses were exactly a match to what I was looking for and to help me get an entry point level job in the field!
That’s where it all started for me on a path to web design and development, Sept 2001. From this point on I am more self taught through online instructional courses like a lot of other folks but NEiA (Art Institute) provided a great foundation in my studies.
Although I almost considered dropping out (returning at a later date) after what occurred on 9/11. I was only in my 2nd day of classes and was commuting into the city of Boston more-so when the nation was absolutely horrified and devastated by that days events. I was scared of traveling on public transit again as it was on high alert during those next few years. Remembered students sitting in my class getting texted by their ROTC officers and having to report to their military posts. Scary times then but got on with life.
Now around the same time I was going through my studies, my brother was learning various 3D design tools by using drafting apps like CAD, 3D Studio Max & Maya. We were running parallel to each other in some graphic industry areas but in slightly different creative directions. I tried to learn as much as a I could about his medium but it would get rather overwhelming while trying to learn 2D graphics and various dev programming languages and platforms at the same time. It was all too much to digest back then.
However I will note that a lot of the vocab and terms in his 3D design world and in my code world are pretty similar. So it has helped in a way to understand complex/abstract topics in code in a visual manner sometimes. Later on I would slowly learn to build basic things in 3D and understand terms used to light scenes and texture mapping from an overview of what he thought was gainful knowledge that he would impart on me that has helped me leap into studying that area too later on!
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