Colby had a long journey to becoming a developer.
While attending Boston College, she was fascinated by the study of human behavior, so she pursued a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Alongside her studies, she explored passions in ceramic sculpting and photography, which allowed her to express herself and her impressions of the world.
Graduating from college with an idea for an app and no technical background, Colby was inspired to begin learning how to code. She became an elementary school teacher but eventually attended a coding boot camp and fell in love with what she discovered. She enjoyed it so much that she started to incorporate what she was learning into her students’ curriculum, and they enjoyed it just as much!
Finally, Colby took a leap of faith and left her teaching job to pursue a career in web development. She then discovered Sparkbox’s apprenticeships and became one of our 2019 full-stack apprentices. Now she’s joining our team as a full-time developer!
Colby brings unique experience and skills to her role at Sparkbox. Having worked as a teacher, she has developed excellent skills in making new concepts easy to understand, mentoring others, leading groups of people, and communicating effectively with all ages. Colby currently puts these skills to use leading a bi-weekly meetup called “Connect Code Build,” a co-working session that focuses on changing the ratio of minorities in tech and welcomes all people looking to build together, learn code, and network. She is also a skilled problem solver and loves to approach issues creatively.
Colby is thoughtful and empathetic, which are qualities she sees mirrored in others at Sparkbox. She has been surprised that other Sparkboxers are genuinely interested in her as a person, not just in what she can do for them. She feels free to be herself in the office. And we’re glad—because she brings great perspectives and skills to the team.
In her free time, Colby loves exploring the outdoors. She enjoys hiking, kayaking, paddle boarding, and biking. She also spends her time reflecting and writing.
We’re so excited that Colby is sticking around after her apprenticeship and officially joining the team. Please join us in welcoming her! Say hi to Colby on GitHub.
