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My CS journey actually began in 1979-1980 as a computer operator at a healthcare company. Our company got new computers and the programmers didn't want to work on our older systems but there were bugs in some of the programs or we had requests for changes. I taught myself to program on our older systems and then got a job writing applications software for a small company and worked as a computer programmer, software consultant, and systems analyst for 18 years at a variety of companies until I became a stay at home mom to my 2 daughters.

When my youngest daughter was just going into middle school, the K-8 school she attended lost their computer teacher and I was asked to take the job just for a few months until they could find a replacement. That started my 2nd career in CSEd! The job was originally all about teaching productivity tools and typing. Because of my background in software development, I didn't want to just watch kids type for 45 minutes and wondered what kids could do with computer science. I started experimenting with teaching some coding using Scratch to our middle school students in 2010 and found the CSTA standards in 2012. When the Hour of Code started in 2013, it became my catalyst for bringing CS to our elementary students, as well, and from then on, CS was taught to all students at my school. Even though I'm now retired, I am thrilled to still be involved in K-12 computer science as a CSTA GLA Chapter Leader, standards writer, and more.