Unemployed

Education:

University of the Virgin Islands, St Thomas, USVI, 2013-2018

-Degree: Bachelors of Science

-Major:  Marine Biology

-Hovensa Scholarship

-Honor Student Award

Geneseo High School, Geneseo, IL, 2009-2013

-Degree: High School Degree with Multiple A.P Credits

-Advanced Placement Scholar Award for “Exemplary College Level Achievement”

Applicable Skills:

-Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint-Advanced Math and Science Skills

-Food Preparation and Handling-Effective Leadership Skills

-Customer Service-Efficient Multi-Tasker

-Restaurant Experience-Problem Solving

-Reliable employee-Environmental Research Experience-Diving Experience (Rescue Diver Certified)-Online Marketing Experience -Business Website Setup-Inventory Control-Geographic Information System (GIS)-Prediction modeling programs (Terrset, ArcMAP)

-Laboratory Experience (Hazardous Chemicals, Dissections, etc.)

Research Experience:

ECS (Emerging Caribbean Scientists) research program, Marine Biology

• Recommended by professors and peers to receive ECS award

• Focused on feeding behavior of Sea Lettuce Slug Elysia crispate where the results of findings were presented to my peers in the Marine Biology department.

• Conducted analysis with Scientific Principles

• Performed data analysis and consolidated findings for professional review and publication

St. Thomas, U.S Virgin Islands

June 23rd-August 15th, 2014

SCRIPPS Program (NASA)

• Traveled to California for ten weeks to study and create Land Use/Land Change (LU/LC) Maps of the U.S Virgin Islands for both Government and Independent use.

• Worked in a team of four people writing our own coding for tracking LU/LC for over twenty years using Javascript, and Google Earth Explorer API.

• Used time scale analysis such as TerrSet, ArcMAP, and Google Earth Explorer to create and analyze how land classifications have changed over the past twenty years.

• Created a Tech Paper, poster, and video for the project

NASA Ames Research Center, California

June 4th – August 11th, 2017

Traveled to the AMES Research Institute in California to work with NASA in creating a time scale map of the U.S Virgin Islands. Working in a team of four we wrote our own code to be used with satellites to analyze how the islands have developed over time as they become more industrialized. My main responsibility was writing some of the code, running all of the statistics, and creating the models that we used for mapping using several programs such as ArcMap, Terrset, and Google Earth engine.

Coding (Javascript)

Program Application: Terrset, Google Earth Engine ArcMap

Team Coordination

Creating Land Use/ Land Change Maps

Statistical Analysis of changing Environment over a period of Decades.

Work Experience:

Culvers

East Moline, IL

May 15th - August 10th, 2013

My role within the Culvers community was to prepare the various foods we served to customers. I was quick and had to pay close attention to specific customers’ needs. I understand the importance of quality customer service; and that even a small mistake can cost the company money. This job also provided me with the opportunity to demonstrate strong teamwork as we worked to ensure quality service in the fast pace, high volume restaurant environment. In addition to working as a trusted team-mate, I was also responsible for individual standards of cleanliness and food preparation to comply with restaurant sanitary conditions.

Cardow Jewelers

St. Thomas

September 08th, 2016 – September 22nd, 2017

My duty within the Cardow Jewelers of St. Thomas was to set up, maintain and improve their online website. Within a week after I began working I proved my aptitude and was allowed to work both full time and manage both the incoming and outflow of inventory. This required that I maintain constant vigilance to ensure that we remained competitive in a crowded market by understanding in depth how social media organizes information and search engines. Furthermore, in a display of social marketing, I learned how to change the website so that people would see our website before others bringing us from the third page in a google search to the very first store listed. This job has provided me with a chance to put my teamwork, leadership, and social communication skill to the test with understanding the customers wants and needs.

Belfor

St. Thomas

October 25th, 2017 – January 05th, 2018

During my time with Belfor, I have been placed on the Demolition Crew to clear away the furnishings, floors, framing, and appliances within their sites (primarily at the Ritz Carlton Hotel). Within my first week, I raised the crew's efficiency so we were weeks ahead of schedule. This did not happen alone as such feats require both a good team dynamic and leadership skills. Making sure that the right group of people is together and that everyone is also doing their assigned task had become a part of my daily routine. This work, however, has taught me several aspects of construction as the most effective I have found to tear something down is to understand how it was built in the first place. This aspect of trying to understand my work on a fundamental and basic level has paid dividends as my productivity increased greatly and allowed me to analyze every aspect of a situation in order to obtain the best results. At the same time, my leadership skills have been refined so that I can ensure that every job gets done as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

AECOM Emergency Home Repair Virgin Islands

St. Thomas/St. John

February 15, 2018 – June 28

My time working with the Emergency Home Repair Virgin Islands (EHRVI) has been a drastically different working environment for me. As the Center Lead for the St. John branch it was my duty to ensure that all applications are handled in a way that while efficient is more than anything humane. The EHRVI is a program that provides repairs to people’s homes so that they can safely live in them once again after two Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the Islands in 2017. Most people that I have met are those who have nowhere to go and are desperate for aid, so they come in looking for someone to help them in their time of need or are seeking council in these trying times. The most important thing I tell any and all new workers are that the people need to be treated with the utmost respect and dealt with in a patient and calm manner. The second most important thing at the job is that we keep everything organized. If even a single letter is out of place in our documents and it goes unreported it can and likely will lead to people remaining homeless their entire life left to weather the next hurricane season outdoors. As a leader, I have also had my share of troubling folks and have had to utilize several different methods to alleviate their concerns whether it be through careful persuasion or calling security. This job more than anything has taught me organization, humanity, and how to effectively lead a team of individuals into a cohesive unit.

Volunteer Experience:

Sea Turtle Conservation of Bonaire

Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

October 2013

• Assisted in the counting and release of over one-hundred newly hatched sea turtles

• Worked with a team to analyze the results and compare to the previous years

Narrative/Additional

Technology

I have been utilizing Microsoft products such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint since I was a child and am thus well versed in many of their machinations and utilities in a variety of situations.  Synthesizing with my advanced math and science skills gained through decades of diligent pursuit culminating in my Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology. I have written countless research papers over a variety of projects in both Word and Google Documents; from analyzing and critiquing other research papers, conducting my own research in the biological and chemical ecology of marine species of crabs, slugs, turtles, and barracuda. Once my findings where written down I would spend hours setting up and inputting any and all relevant data into pivot tables, deciding which statistical tests (chi-squared, t-tests, one-way, two-way ANOVAs, Correlation, and several forms of regression tests) would best fit my data, and finally using the right graphs (pie, bar, line, box and whisker, and several others) to best visualize the culmination of my research. Finally, I continue to use Powerpoint and Prezi in order to best present my research to both the scientific community and the general public in an easily digestible format, whether that be through a twenty to thirty (20-30) slide presentation, or compiling information so that it can be showcased as a single poster. Furthermore, I have had the privilege to utilize some NASA’s technological capabilities such as their Geographic Information System (GIS) and several of their satellites to map out the U.S Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and observe how development has changed the face of the island over a period of over twenty years (20). We accomplished this task by codifying sections of the islands into several categories based on the photonic wavelengths the satellites picked up; and from there using several prediction modeling programs namely Terrset, ArcMAP compare the images over time to observe the developmental process of the territories. Based off of our collected data we were able to inform the U.S Virgin Island government how the economy is likely to change over time and inform environmental scientist of areas that are at risk of being further developed. The goal of our project was always first and foremost inform the government and interested parties so that they can collaborate together in order to develop the economy of the island in the future in a sustainable way that does not adversely affect the wildlife ecology which the territory relies heavily upon to attract tourists. I have also worked with Cardow Jewelers in the Caribbean to develop and improve their website. Running on a tight deadline I had barely two (2) weeks to create and customize their website using only their older website as a basis. Much of the decision-making process of the overall design and theme of the website was left to my discretion. As long as I put the products they told me to online I was left to do as I please. This project stoked my creative side and through working with photographers, salespeople, customer service, IT, and of course the managers; I was able to create a website that regularly produced two point five to four thousand dollars ($2,500-$4,000) a month compared to their previous website which barely produced five hundred dollars ($500) in sales. After my initial work in building the website was complete I was hired to stay on and maintain the new website constantly improving in small ways to better fit customer feedback and in an effort to boost sales. This required constant collaboration with our Customer Service Department to make sure the website was smooth, easy to use, and efficient. I also worked with the IT department to ensure that no crashes, mishaps, or items were lost. The culmination of my work lead to my direct assistance with designing the business strategic plan for the holiday season which involved talks with radio hosts, the local newspaper, commuting, and food and liquor stores to offer special promotions. Towards the end of my time with them, I also worked in their Inventory management department which involved extensive use of excel to track and manage the inflow and outflow of products which required daily supervision as many items would not come in consistently labeled according to our companies strict guidelines. I was later trained in the use of several power tools such as jackhammers power saws, beam cutters, and sheetrock placement while working with BELFOR demolitions. Finally, I recently worked with AECOM where I gained a deeper understanding of how printers, copy, and fax machines are maintained and used.

Professional Research

My first internship involved working in the virgin islands under the tutelage of Dr. Teresa Turner as our team researched the feeding habits of the local sea slug species to Elysia crispata. Over a period of six (6) weeks, we observed the slugs feeding habits on several of the local species of algae and seagrass to observe if they had a preference and if so we would analyze the chemical, physical, and geographic properties of the species drew them to it. However, as time passed we observed that the slugs began to feed only on Bryopsis even when the alga was in poorer conditions or far less abundant than the other algae available to them. Theorizing that such behavior could have been conditioned into them due to the initial food we provided them (a process known as digestive conditioning). Testing this theory with several newly acquired batches of E. crispata we were able to gather evidence that largely supported our claim that the slugs could be digestive conditioned to feed off of only certain species of alga despite other more nutritional or available food sources present in the environment. Our findings were presented at several local conferences for questions, and where I discussed with other the possible applications of our research such as digestive conditioning the slugs to feed on only invasive species of seagrass or algae. Later, I had the privilege to utilize some NASA’s technological capabilities such as their Geographic Information System (GIS) and several of their satellites to map out the U.S Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and observe how development has changed the face of the island over a period of over twenty years (20). We accomplished this task by codifying sections of the islands into several categories based on the photonic wavelengths the satellites picked up; and from there using several prediction modeling programs namely Terrset, ArcMAP compare the images over time to observe the developmental process of the territories. Based off of our collected data we were able to inform the U.S Virgin Island government how the economy is likely to change over time and inform environmental scientist of areas that are at risk of being further developed. The goal of our project was always first and foremost inform the government and interested parties so that they can collaborate together in order to develop the island's economy in the future in a sustainable way that does not adversely affect the wildlife ecology which the territory relies heavily upon to attract tourists. At the conclusion of our internship, we drafted a tech paper detailing our projects methodology and finding in a stringently detailed scientific report going in-depth into the technology we used, how it worked, why we used it, and how the project can be used as a model in other fields of research. Despite my financial responsibilities, I was continually active in research assisting several groups in their endeavors. Notably, I continually assisted Dr. Edwin Cruz-Rivera and Cheryl Petsche. For around two (2) years we studied the habits of decorator crabs in the Virgin Islands. We specifically focused on their choice of decoration and why they choose the algae, and coral that they do. Our hypothesis at the time was that they chose their decorations based primarily on the chemical defenses of the algae/sponge and their ability to deter potential predators from consuming them with the sources abundance or camouflage benefits being second. While I had to leave early due to personal reasons I continued to provide support and assistance as often as I could. Gathering and maintaining the specimens water quality, food availability, even monitoring them at times watching hours worth of videos at a time. I was also there to provide aid in the statistics of the paper and in reviewing the drafts of the research paper before it was submitted for publication.

Security Clearance

Throughout my career, I have been entrusted on multiple levels with the private information of both large scale government companies, international business assets, and more personal information. While working as an intern with NASA after an extensive background check from my medical, academic, driving, and personal records; I was cleared to live on base wander into most buildings and granted the privilege to come and go as I please at any time of the day or night. While working with Cardow Jewelers I had regular access to their inventory, sales, financial accounts, and building access to move about the buildings as was needed to acquire supplies that I needed in order to ensure that all of our stock was accounted for and our website has accurate information. I was also heavily involved with the companies strategic planning for the busiest time of the year. I had access to our finances and partners so that I could best suggest the ways that we can use our resources to bring in the most customers. Finally at my last job with Architecture, Engineering, Consulting, Operations, and Maintenance (AECOM) in their Emergency Home Repair Virgin Island (EHRVI) program I was entrusted with the personal info of our applicants. They were required to entrust me with their deeds, financial and medical records, oftentimes I was given trust funds or a will in order to see if they were qualified for the program. To record this information we would take pictures of their documents and had to upload through secure work phones onto a secure email address and send it to the case managers who had their own security measures. While working as a site manager I was entrusted with ensuring that my co-workers were present on time, kept a professional tone with our applicants, and did followed the companies strict guidelines in completing the paperwork needed to process an applicants request.

-References and Professional letters of Recommendations Available upon Request-