Email

603-563-1288

Technology and Math Instructor

BS Virginia Tech 

As of 2010, I am 25 years old.  I spent the first 22 years of my life in rural southwestern Virginia where my family has lived for many generations.  I even went to college in my home town.  With few exceptions, I have been at least part-time employed since the age of 15.  While my degree is in abstraction, I am a jack-of-all-trades, and reasonably proficient in just about every manual skill from carpentry to computer programming.

At the age of 21, I decided to leave Virginia and signed up for a Study Abroad program in Budapest, Hungary.  The next year, I left Virginia and lived in Eastern Europe for half a year.  While there, I visited 8 different countries ranging from Germany to Croatia, and even spent a week with my friend who works at a Montessori school in Ezbet el-Nahkl (a slum in Cairo, Egypt).  My time abroad together with my conservative upbringing are the key components of who I am today.

What book has made you think the most?: Fields Medalist Dr. Jeffrey Weeks, "The Shape of Space".

If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?: Students seem to think that I already have superpowers!  Really, I need no other powers than what I already have.  Each person has the power to affect the world around them in ways that are unique to that person.  Understanding the responsibility that comes with this power, and then using it for the betterment of your small part of the world is better than any fantastical superpower imaginable.

If your life had a theme song, what would it be?: The peaceful silence of a winter night.

What teacher has had the most impact on you? How were they special?: My high school was middle tier compared to its district.  The district is far from the poorest, but is also even farther from being as well funded and as well staffed as schools in the northern regions of Virginia.  However, the teachers who always had the most impact on me were those teachers who didn't just "make do" with what they had, but innovated on the tools that they had available.  Whether this meant using flower vases from the front office to demonstrate finding volumes of irregular solids in Calculus, or jimmy-rigging ancient hardware to build a network in Cisco class, or literally building our own tools for small engine repair, these teachers who refused to accept that the way it has always been must be the best way are the teachers who really made an impact on me and my classmates.

How would your friends describe you in 3 words?: They would definitly say, "Way Too Complicated!"

You are hosting a dinner party and must invite 3 famous people. Who would you choose and why?: While living in Budapest, some of my friends and I had the pleasure of having dinner with Dr. Béla Bolobás (Prof. at Cambridge), so I suppose I should return the favour someday!  I would very much like to hear a debate between Reneé Décarte and Jean-Paul Sartre.

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?: I wouldn't =P.