I was a cosmetologist and I was working my way to being a national educator for Paul Mitchell, when I threw a roll of duct tape up to the roof and re-tore on my shoulder.  They said I would have to change my career.

Growing up, I was always interested in building computers. And it wasn't until I met my boyfriend that I realized anyone knew anything about programming. And so I was like, 'why don't you teach me how to code.' And so that's when he had randomly followed Austen. Austen's Twitter led him to Lambda, and he's like "it's a long shot, but try" and I wrote a ridiculous application to get in. And I made it.

First and foremost, I am a mom. I have two beautiful kids and they're both on the autism spectrum. And I wanted them to know that mom could be more than just mom. And a lot of their life, I stayed home with them. They were non-verbal, severe, and now they are high functioning Asperger's. And I now need them to know that they can keep doing more and more, that there's no limitations.

Lambda School has backed me the whole way. They've made sure that my imposter syndrome was really just that. Lambda gave me the confidence to speak in front of people and to teach people and the opportunity to watch other students grow and see them get their jobs. I tripled what made my entire life. I met a company that I didn't think would ever look twice at me for my application. And only because I went through Lambda did I have the confidence to do that.

It gave me faith back at myself, that I lost a long time ago because maybe I believed that I was just a hairdresser.