Mandy’s first introduction to coding (and teaching) was during her sophomore year in college, when she taught herself HTML and then put together a workshop to teach her fellow students as well. While she also used her knowledge to rebuild the school newspaper’s website, she still moved on after college to become a newspaper editor, photographer, and art educator before returning to coding.
Mandy’s experience teaching kids at a multimedia arts school reignited her passion for programming. As part of the school’s initiative to introduce more tech classes into the curriculum, she was asked to teach groups of 8-year-olds how to build robots and make video games. Not only did the kids love using programming creatively, but Mandy remembered she did as well. So she decided to continue her education at the University of Pittsburgh and officially make the switch to full-time development.
Mandy first learned about Sparkbox from a women’s coding MeetUp in Pittsburgh that some of our employees also attended. She was impressed with Sparkbox’s dedication to building a better web for everyone through leadership, a focus on accessibility, and the desire to share knowledge with the tech community. She’s excited to be joining the team and contributing to those goals.
From her background as an art educator, Mandy developed strong creativity, empathy, and an ability to quickly learn and teach others. We are so excited that she has joined us and is strengthening our team with these skills!
In her free time, Mandy likes to investigate the road less traveled: she enjoys hiking, road trips, and exploring. One of her favorite hobbies is working on a hot air balloon crew in the summers, where she works the ropes while the balloon is being inflated and then tracks the balloon until it finds a safe place to land. Mandy also enjoys alternative photography and recently got to combine these two hobbies, taking aerial shots with an infrared camera during a hot air balloon flight. You can see some of her work in her portfolio.
We are so excited that Mandy is joining us and bringing her creative, explorer’s spirit. Please join us in welcoming her. Say hi to Mandy on Github or CodePen.
