Hi, my name is Amanda Contreras. I live in New York City, where I currently work as a nanny. Before, I use to be an assistant teacher from pre-k to 2nd grade for about 5-6 years. Being a teacher was a little tough for me not because of the children, but because of administration (the political part) in the education field. No matter how hard my co-workers and I fought to get better services for our children, we were always shut down for it. I know every job has its ups & downs, but this was a down my heart couldn’t handle where no matter how hard I try for my kids I, as a teacher couldn’t give them the services they desperately need and it ached me.
I decided to leave and became a nanny where I can help a child with what they need. The family I work for, until now is great! The little girl i take care of is 9 years old and in her school they teach coding, and I thought that was really cool because I didn’t have that at her age. The same thing with my cousin he is now 16 years old and is learning coding as well. I thought this was so cool.
I was talking to my cousin how I wish I had this growing up, but as we were talking he told me I learned it in high school. I went to a high school for engineering, but I thought just typing in numbers and signs telling a little robot what to do, was just literally telling it what to do. I honestly didn’t know that was coding at all! In my high school they didn’t say “type in this code” they say “type” and that’s what I did as a student. I told my cousin I’ve could have started coding a long time ago! I thought to myself, since I’m not so happy in the education field and I can’t be a nanny forever might as well kind of go back to my old roots where I did enjoy coding even though I didn’t know that was what I was doing in my teen years.
My cousin and the little girl I take care of inspired me to do something I never thought or dream of doing. So why not take a chance something out of my comfort zone and go for it! I’m pretty excited to start this new journey in software engineering and meet amazing people along the way!!!