Treehouse
writes on February 22, 2018
Our teachers at Treehouse are full-time staff who dedicate their time and energy to teaching, guiding, and helping students learn useful skills and make sense of the world of technology. These wonderful people are here to help you, so take a few minutes to learn a little more about them, and be sure to say “Hi” in the Community, over email, or on Twitter!
Treasure Porth
Tell us about your road to programming.
Before I got into tech, I worked in a variety of vocational and community education programs, mainly serving at-risk adult populations. I taught basic career and college success skills, as well as basic technology skills.
When the job market declined during the recession, however, I had to take a job in a medical laboratory as a “Specimen Processing Specialist,” which involved hours of monotonous data entry and affixing barcodes to little vials of saliva. Not exactly my life’s ambition!
After a couple of years I started looking for a way to switch careers. That’s when I did a bunch of research and discovered Treehouse. I’ve always been interested in technology, but assumed that you had to be a math genius and child prodigy to pursue programming as a career. Once I learned what was possible, I really threw myself into it, studying for hours after work and for most of the weekend as well. After finishing Treehouse’s front end track, I secured a grant through my state’s employment department to attend a local coding bootcamp.
I studied Python in the bootcamp, but quickly gravitated toward JavaScript. Nine months after writing my first line of code, I landed my first job as a front end developer. I was at a very small agency where I was the only full time developer, so I had to learn a lot and figure things out very quickly on my own. Google and resources like Treehouse saved me more than once!
What drew you to work at Treehouse?
I’ve been a fan of Treehouse since I first started learning to code. I love our friendly and welcoming style, and being a teacher here is the perfect marriage of my technical skills and background in education.
I am very passionate about Treehouse’s mission to provide affordable, accessible education to students who may have barriers to success. Working in tech has completely changed my life — I now have a fulfilling career and financial freedom that I never in a million years thought I would have. It’s a privilege and an honor to have the opportunity to help others achieve the same.
What are some non-technology things you are interested in?
I love to travel, especially to the UK. I’m a karaoke enthusiast and I also love to read, watch terrible movies with friends, write fiction, rollerskate, and find new places to have brunch or happy hour.
Ken W. Alger
Tell us about your road to programming.
I started programming when I was eight or nine on Commodore PET machines with cassette tapes as data storage and programming in BASIC. I spent many hours writing BASIC programs creating games, basic word processing, and database applications. By the time I finished high school my interest in programming and computers had shifted to other topics and I didn’t pursue it as a career. Little did I know that in all of my future jobs I would be leaned on as the “computer guy.”
After more years than I’d like to admit, I determined I needed a career change. I thought that getting back into programming would be a good fit for my interests, but I also needed to refresh my skills with modern languages. In the process of revamping my language skills, I came across Treehouse and really enjoyed it as a learning platform and community.
What drew you to work at Treehouse?
The mission of Treehouse, “Treehouse brings affordable technology education to people everywhere in order to help them achieve their dreams and change the world” resonates with me a lot. Knowing the financial and time costs of traditional higher education is frightening. Not only for students right out of high school, but for adult learners as well. After being a Treehouse student and talking with instructors and other staff members I set a goal of someday working here. When a position opened up for the (at the time) new Techdegree Services team, I was thrilled to join the team.
What are some non-technology things you are interested in?
I enjoy spending time with my wife, three kids, and two dogs exploring the wide variety of activities the Pacific Northwest region of the United States has to offer.
Ashley Boucher
Tell us about your road to programming.
My road to programming began when I was working as a Digital Marketing Manager and my company’s website needed some revamping. I decided to take on the task of learning WordPress and some basic PHP to get me started – in my googling I found Treehouse and started taking courses! Over the next few months I challenged myself to learn as much about programming and web dev as I could and eventually started freelancing as a PHP and Shopify developer.
What drew you to work at Treehouse?
I really believe in the product – I’m a case study in how Treehouse can truly provide the skills to change or upgrade careers. Treehouse gave me the opportunity to spend my time working on things that are challenging, exciting, and meaningful, and now I get to teach here! It’s super exciting.
What are some non-technology things you are interested in?
I recently joined the rec roller derby team here in Portland, so it’s been super fun to learn to skate and challenge myself in a new athletic way. I also play piano, love to try new restaurants and food carts around the city, and go to see the orchestra often. The rest of my downtime is spent with my wife and our dogs and other pets 🙂
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