Dani Zaghian

Coding Instructor, Curriculum Developer, and Full-Stack Engineer

about me

About

DaniI'm Dani and I'm located in the San Francisco Bay Area. I work as an instructor, curriculum developer, and produdct manager for Podium Education, delivering tech-empowered courses to undergrad students across the globe. I'm a former senior instructor for Actualize Coding Bootcamp, and have helped hundreds of students transition into tech careers.

I attended UC Santa Cruz where I graduated with a bachelors of science in biology. While pursuing a career in my field, I worked with talented software engineers and became interested in programming, so I enrolled in an immersive web-development bootcamp. I fell in love with coding and design and while I worked as an industry engineer and designer for a while, I realized my home was in the bootcamp world teaching the next generation of developers.

my skills

Skills

Languages and Libraries

JavaScript, Ruby, Python, HTML5, CSS3, SQL, C#, jQuery, Bootstrap, Skeleton, Foundation, Material Design

Platforms and Frameworks

Rails, React, Vue, Node, Express, Angular, ASP.NET, Sinatra

Database Tools

PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Mongoose, MySQL, ActiveRecord

Other Tech Skills

Git/GitHub, Heroku, Rest APIs, JSON, Encryption, Testing, Visual Studio

projects

Projects

Colorfall
Colorfall

Colorfall

Colorfall is a game I created using the framework PhaserJS. It is a canvas HTML5 game that allows you to create a pixelated image and share it on facebook or twitter. It was built in less than 1 week when I had been programming for just a few months.

I designed the game and coded the front­end game interface and back­end social media sharing.

Booting Up

Booting Up/Actualize Prework

Booting up is a prework website with a blend of videos and exercises for the coding bootcamp Actualize.

I designed and built the application including the database schema design and building of the database, RESTful routing, CRUD funcionality, Bootstrap theme implementation/styling, and UI views.

Monj

Monj

Monj is a digital cooking and food platform to help people develop healthier habits. I redesigned the entire website of 30+ pages along with the interactions and user flows.

I did all the discovery and analysis, wireframing, and iterations on wireframes. Another designer and I co-created all the sketch files and I did all the additional of rounds of sketch iterations based on client request.

my hobbies

Hobbies

Video and Board Games

In my downtime I like to game in any way I can. I love playing competitive PC games as well as Dungeons and Dragons! I play a lot of League of Legends and I am the game master for a gothic horror D&D campaign called the Curse of Strahd. Gaming is a great social experience, mentally engaging, and tons of fun.

Ice Skating

Since I was a toddler, I've been ice-skating. I used to be a competitive figure skater and I still enjoy trips to the rink to keep my skills sharp and stay in shape.

Mentoring, Teaching, and Learning

After my immersive bootcamp, I was hired on at the company (General Assembly) to help teach the next cohort. I learned how to teach effectively and mentor students individually. Not only did I love doing it, but it helped me grow as a person. I now work as a full-time tech educator and have taken on the role of mentor in a permanent sense, and continue to practice growth mindset in my personal life.

Baking

I've had a sweet tooth as long as I can remember, and started baking in high school. I especially love baking cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and breads, but I am willing to take on new challenges! Donuts are my weakness.

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