I have always partcipated in clubs & teams - no matter the context - with passion and a desire to give 100%.

During college, I spent my time actively engaged in multiple clubs on campus. In my sophomore year, I was vice president of two associations, ABC (Association of Black Collegians) and SIGGraph (Special Interest Group in Graphics).

ABC strived for excellence in every event they held. Being a politically active advocate group, we centered around minority groups and the black community at large. As an ally I wasn't surprised to find myself relating to many aspects of discrimination and challenges that other members of ABC went through in their Black experiences. What was interesting was that I could bring in my unique experiences to our club's weekly conversations, even though I was an outsider, and helped add to constructive dialogue in my own way. During that year, I found myself in long chats about race, gender, equality, and wealth, all of them eye-opening and some which challenged the values I had been brought up with.

Besides leadership skills and working closely alongside the president at the time, I felt that the club was a key point of growth for myself.

In SIGGraph, I was able to contribute to a group dedicated to a topic I was already taking classes in and excited about. In that club I learned the importance of planning ahead, as the biggest event of the entire year was a three day game jam / competition held in our university's indoors stadium. I became heavily involved both in the planning and execution of said event. I learned valuable event-planning, time / resource management, and other management related skills. I joined clubs with the mindset of adding a few lines to my resume but I left with valuable life-experience and many friends along the way.

The last few years of college saw me in the NOVA fellowship and Stylus Magazine. NOVA was where I worked with an eclectic group of high achieving members from different colleges on innovative ideas and entrepreneural projects, while in Stylus Magazine I worked as one of two Senior Editors and oversaw a group of Graphic Designers on publishing our annual Art & Writing showcasing magazine.

Now in grad school, I am honing in my experience as a game designer and have participated in two game jams with various classmates in the same program, and I'm excited to continue growing.

I strive to know as much about developing games as I can, and thus have a wide range of compentencies.

As soon as I entered college, I was fixated on my goal and began working towards becoming a game maker, someone who could potentially do every job needed to make a game. I received a triple major in Computer Gaming and Simulation Developemt, Graphic Design, and Applied Mathematics for my Undergraduate studies at the University of Tulsa, along with a minor in Art History. I also participated in our university's marching band and orchestra the four years I was there, making sure to keep up with my music skill on the clarinet and piano.

In game development specifically, I have taken classes in computer graphics, multivariable calculus, higher leveled theoretical math courses like number theory and real analysis, 3D modeling, animation, and video editing. For general computer science, I learned coding in Java, C++, Python, and have both web development & mobile development skills. For art I have taken the essential coursework to build a solid foundation for form and space, and then have taken coursework in photoshop, indesign, illustrator, typorgraphy, and art history.

I spent a summer doing undergraduate research with Professor Valero in a collaboration between the art and computer science schools on the feasibility of Artificial General Intelligence, which I then wrote a paper for. Unfortunately, the colloquium to present my finding to my academic peers was cancelled due to COVID-19.

All this to say that I am confident in my ability to help in any of those roles and I have a very generalist background, but my passion lies in Game Design. Undergrad was a time for me to find myself and learn all that I could, and now in Graduate school at Abertay University I am honing all my concentration on game design.

I am a STEAM advocate and understand that diversity & inclusion are not only necessary in gaming, but are required for creating impactful games.

Seeing yourself in some aspects of a character in video games is always exciting for people who are not usually represented. Although games have become more and more diverse in character types and backgrounds, there are still many vast improvements to be made. A lot of reflection and scrutiny applied to movies, books, and other entertainment forms are not seen in the video game industry, simply because of the barrier that exists in the medium itself. For example, let's talk about the biggest 'minority' group in gaming. Even now, although around 41% of gamers in the US are women, games with more 'competitive' communities like COD & CSGO see that percentage decrease to 15% and 25%, respectively. Nearly 60% of women between the ages of 18-29 play videos games, but in E-Sports, only 5% of pro players are female. Pro gaming is heavily dominated by males, who make up the other 95% .

This is simply one of the many areas where game companies need to improve. Afterall, the more audiences a game connects to, the more revenue it will generate. Being accessible on multiple levels in different ways will not only help create better communities and fandoms for games but bring more success to the group of people that work to make that happen.