I am a programmer, a mother of three young adults, and a life-long learner. My family, including my husband Leo, me, and our two-year old son Michael ("Misha"), immigrated to the US from Belarus in 1996 with very little English, no money, and huge hopes for a better life. Since then, I have strived to seize any opportunity to expand my knowledge and gain new skills. Just less than a year after immigration, I was able to find my first full time job as a computer programmer for a distribution company based in Milwaukee, WI.

My first job helped me become a better programmer and team member, and my co-workers became a family. Together, we grew as programmers from Dibol to web developers utilizing JavaScript, ColdFusion, and ASP on everyday basis. Working as a team, we customized Microsoft Commerce Server and built a fully-functioning e-commerce website for our company.

At the same time, my family grew as well: my husband and I had three beautiful children. When my family had to move to Michigan for my husband's job, my manager asked me to continue working for them from Michigan as an independent contractor. However, after six more years of telecommuting, I chose to devote my life to my children and all of their activities.

This year is bittersweet because my youngest child graduated from high school and left for college. I thought that it would be a great time for me to return to what I liked the most: web development. In June, I enrolled in a full stack web development bootcamp at Michigan State University. I am currently learning the latest trends in web development including HTML5, CSS3, JQuery, Express.js, Node.js, React.Js utilizing MySQL and MongoDB. It is not easy to start learning again at 51, however, I am confident that I will overcome all the challenges, finish the course, and reclaim my career as a web developer.