About Me

Where it all began...

I was born in New York City, New York on May 8, 1977. My parents and I lived in New York City for a few years before we moved to Marlboro, New Jersey where I still live and call home.

The early years...

After pre-k, I started going to Ranney School, a small private school in Tinton Falls. It is a middle school as well as a high school, and it was my school for 13 years. At Ranney, I developed my passion for music. Music was always just as important as any other subject. In music class, we would learn and sing songs from the classic musicals such as "The Sound of Music", "Fiddler on the Roof", and "West Side Story." At home, I would memorize pop songs and imitate singers' dancing styles. Sometimes, I would even perform in front of my friends. Though, music was a big part of my life, my work always came first. Math was always my favorite subject in school, and from Algebra to Calculus, I always took pride in being the best in the class. In middle school, I spent a lot of time doing homework and watching T.V. I guess I haven't yet mentioned my bad T.V. habit. Most school days, I would watch my favorite sitcoms, "Three's Company", "Family Ties", and "Who's The Boss", while doing my homework. I also found some time for sports in my life. In school, I played many sports: soccer, softball, field hockey, basketball, swimming. But in the eighth grade, I became especially interested in tennis and started taking tennis lessons.

Growing up...

As I grew up, school work became more and more important to me. High school life was geared towards college preparation. I took all the AP courses I possibly could: AP English Composition, AP English Literature, AP Calculus B, AP Calculus C, AP Physics B, AP Physics C, AP Chemistry, AP Economics, and AP Computer Science, studied math over the summer, and volunteered at my local hospital. I also discovered a new talent in rhetoric and joined the drama club; I was in my school's production of "The Miracle Worker." My extracurricular activities consisted of the math team, women's chorus, the drama club, and the tennis team. My favorite subject was still math, now Calculus, but I had a new interest -- Computer Science. I learned first Basic and then Pascal. I enjoyed CS, but I wanted to be a doctor. At the end of my Senior year, my parents had another child -- a baby girl! I was an only child for 18 years and then she came along. BTW, her name is Raina; she is now 6 years old and a doll.

The college years...

Soon, it was college decision time; my decision came down to U.C. Berkeley or Columbia University. I chose Columbia University: The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. At Columbia, I began taking pre-med courses, but I later decided that I wanted to major in Computer Science and fulfill the pre-med requirements. Stanford University's Computer Science department suddenly became attractive. So, I transferred to Stanford and was soon on my way to the blue skies and warm sunshine of Palo Alto, California.

After a few months at Stanford, I knew that medicine was the wrong path for me. I had fallen in love with Computer Science. I decided to pursue just a CS degree. And so began several all-nighters of programming, but nobody ever said it would be easy. Of course, there were fun times too like living in Twain for three years with all those goofy RAs, going to class on my golf cart, becoming obsessed with the the greatest show ever invented -- the X-Files, going to late nite for breadsticks, dancing till dawn, and making great friends. I'll miss it!

And now...