Education
French Immersion
I completed my elementary, junior high, and high school years entirely in French Immersion and Bilingual programs. In earlier years, this meant that all classes were taught in French, with English classes being phased in later on. By the end of my high school career, about half of my classes were still being taught in French, including History, Chemistry, Biology, and of course, French. I graduated in 1995 with a Bilingual High School Diploma from Saint Patrick’s High School.
BSc in Psychology — King’s/Dalhousie
I then proceeded to university, starting with the Foundation Year Programme at the University of King’s College, later transferring to Dalhousie University to finish my Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. Throughout my degree, I took various courses in theoretical and experimental Psychology, as well as in Literature, History, Philosophy, French, Biology, Chemistry, Criminology, and Statistics. I conducted several experimental and research projects in Psychology and wrote research papers on various topics. I graduated from Dalhousie with my BSc in Psychology in 2000.
Applied Information Technology Diploma — ITI
As I was completing the last few courses of my degree, I started attending Information Technology Institute in Halifax. The main focus of ITI’s 9-month program was learning how to learn, so I learned some basic IT skills upon which I could later build, including HTML, VBScript, Visual Basic, Java, and Oracle. I was guided in learning these skills as independantly as possible, through classroom and team exercises and research projects, and four major projects designed to emulate projects which I would encounter in the IT industry. The other major focus of the program was gaining experience working with and leading a team. In completing the four major projects, I was grouped with a different team for each project, and given several opportunities to lead each team, which I found to be a very rewarding and empowering experience. I graduated from ITI with my Applied Information Technology Diploma in 2000.
On-the-job training — FDM, et al
After my graduation from ITI, I studied at the employee training facilities of FDM, in Raleigh, North Carolina, building upon the skills I had acquired at ITI. I trained in ColdFusion, ASP, SQL, JavaScript, and CSS. I created several practice web sites and databases, and also helped other employees with their exercises. I then began working, beginning with a contract at iXL in Vienna, Virginia, and have since been learning new skills on a continual basis, both as required by my work and prompted by my desire to learn. I am continually building my skills through reading and practice, and I look forward to continuing to learn new skills and gain experience throughout my career and life.