Hi, my name is Kenneth Barrett. I'm from Houston, Texas and I'm a data scientist and a graduate from Lambda School.

My entire life I've had an interest in technology. That being said, when I was in my early teenage years, I got involved with addictions. I have PTSD, and I'm on the autism spectrum, my life was really in shambles.

And what got me back to where I needed to be, was Lambda School giving me that opportunity, knowing I had a couple months clean and still seeing something in me.

It's actually kind of hard to talk about because I had never had anybody give me that kind of chance. Like, 'I look at you and I see something.'

It's just been an incredible experience to get to where I wanted, past where I ever thought I would be able to get, even after my addictions just because the people of this school saw something in me.

I ended up homeless during Lambda, and some of the great people at Lambda School, paid for a ticket for me to move to Seattle, Washington and my team leader opened his home to me.

They made sure I ate, they made sure I had a computer, they made sure that I could get on my feet. And because of that I was able to get a job as a data entry specialist in Washington.

I was able to support myself and really get ahead and, get through the program. It still feels very surreal to me.

I never thought that, I could make it anywhere, none the less here, where I'll be in 5, 10 years. And I'm excited for that finally for first time in my life, I'm excited for that future.