Image Database Assistant / Web Developer

While working for the UNC Graduate School I managed a database of over 17,000 images, chronicling Graduate School events and preserving images of Graduate Fellows and VIPs.  I have also been responsible for developing a web application utilizing the Google Maps v3 API.  This application allows alumni from the University to share where their education has taken them in the world.

Technical Intern

As an intern for the SFC, I provided all-round technical support for the office of the Executive Director.  I dealt with eliminating errors in the organization’s contact management system.  I also created new content for the organization’s Drupal-based web site, and I composed HTML-formatted emails to broadcast to the SFC’s numerous subscribers.

Server

As a server I provided excellent customer service, keeping the students of UNC (including myself) fed while supporting my own graduate education.

After School Tutor

Twice a week, I taught reading skills to a small group of elementary school children, aged 6 to 11.  While I was the instructor, I felt I learned a great deal about how to impart lessons to others and about encouraging the learning process.  The tutoring took place as part of an after school program at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School.

Archaeological Field Technician

As a field technician, I performed phase one cultural resource management in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. I was part of an extensive project to survey for the expansion of a natural gas pipeline.

Archaeological Field Technician

Working as a field technician for GAI Consulting began my foray into professional archaeology. Archaeology is significant for the same reasons that art, literature, philosophy, and history are. Archaeology is essential simply because many people enjoy learning, comprehending, and reflecting. The study of archaeology satisfies the essential human yearning to comprehend our origins and, perhaps, our own human character. Some even argue that studying archaeology allows for cultural self-reflection, which will help us build a stronger basis for our collective future. In archaeological survey or field survey is a type of field research in which archaeologists (often landscape archaeologists) search for archaeological sites and collect information about the location, distribution, and organization of past human cultures over a large area . Archaeologists conduct surveys to look for specific archaeological sites or types of sites, to detect patterns in the distribution of material culture across regions, to make generalizations or test hypotheses about past cultures, and to assess the risks that development projects will have an adverse impact on archaeological heritage.

My first project involved significant phase one survey work near the Bell Bend nuclear power facility outside Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. I gained significant experience with survey techniques, and I found my first prehistoric lithics.

Following the Bell Bend project, I worked on a phase two investigation, which involved more extensive excavation at a known archaeological site.  The site was nestled in the mountains of western Virginia and was related to the expansion of a coal power plant.  I found significant deposits of lithic debitage while excavating meter-by-meter square test units.

Assistant Manager

Sci-Fi Genre is an online and brick-and-mortar retailer for all different kinds of geek paraphernalia.  As an assistant manager, I was responsible for handling inventory, providing customer service for the retail store, aiding in processing weekly orders and subscriptions, and organizing special events.  While a small business based in Durham, Sci-Fi Genre maintains a product warehouse, an archive of over 35,000 back issue comic books, and provides tailored comic book subscription services to hundreds of online customers from around the world every week.

Sci-Fi Genre’s local business continued to boom after I left the company’s employment.  They recently changed their name to Atomic Empire and moved their location to a more voluminous space in Durham, NC.  Besides being larger, the new location now offers snacks and serves beers from local micro-breweries.  Atomic Empire also played host to the North Carolina State Championship Tournament for “Magic: The Gathering,” the most popular collectible card game in the world.