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Laurette L.
Laurette L.

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Hacking for Conservation

Former Zookeeper developing technological solutions for critical conservation problems facing our world.

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I completed my first Hacktoberfest by contributing to an IoT solution for helping zoos improve animal care and conservation efforts with innovative technology. As a former zookeeper who evolved into a software engineer, I have very unique insight from both perspectives, which is helping our team to innovate solutions that don't yet exist or are otherwise unobtainable for non-profit zoological institutions due to prohibitive costs and logistics.

Since I was a young child, I've always loved animals and wanted to be a zookeeper when I grew up. So I earned two Bachelor of Science degrees in Psychology (with a focus on Animal Behavior) and Zoo Science to achieve that dream. I also learned web development in college and loved it, so I did that on the side as a fun hobby. Then a couple of years ago I competed for and won a Grow with Google Developer Scholarship for the Front-End Web Developer Nanodegree from Udacity. This led to my career transition from zoology to software engineering.

Now my ultimate goal is to combine my passions, previous experience, and new skills to develop technological solutions for critical conservation problems facing our world. 🌎🌍🌏♻️

Know of any conservation efforts that would benefit from incorporating technology? Please reach out!

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