and now...the Bad Influences...
our coaches
Coaches' Note: We would like to recognize and express our heartfelt thanks to our 'parent coaching team,' without whom this website would never have made it to the launchpad. Parent Coaches--Darrel Galera, Lori Galera, and Kathy Yamashiroya spent many hours working with the team, transporting the team to sessions, and feeding the team...very, very well! Their support kept the regular coaches and team members going through the long, intense hours that are part of ThinkQuest!
To B or not to B? It's a question I often hope can be answered in the affirmative when faced with school, work and the like since A's seems often so out of reach. Yes that's me, an overworked, underpaid college student who often wonders why he chose Electrical Engineering over Computer Science... it would have been so much easier!
Although programming computers dates back to my elementary school years, I got my connection to the world via modem only 6 years ago. At the time, my impressionable mind absorbed the image of the rather anarchic online world. You may find after you get to know me, I tend to tell it to you like it is. Flames, though sometimes not so nice, can be a good method of communication if it conveys a message better. But hey I'm still a kid, what do I know?
Why am I working with these kids? Some of them enjoy playing the Design Paradise site that was created with a lot of help from my teammates Dawn and Darren Sueoka and coach Lynne Sueoka (their Mom). So the kids drafted me to do the same for their site. Do I enjoy working with kids? It all depends... they're a handful.. just like M&M's... oops there goes your brother... there goes your sister.
And like kids, I can't spell, or at least I still wonder where the second l went in the word handful, or perhaps it's hand full, but handful passes the spell checker therefore it must be right.
Okay then, my co-coach sends a bio...I've gotta keep up ;) Skiing...that's what I think of when I think of my 4 years of coaching ThinkQuest, and that's not just because our second project was called Avalanche! either.
ThinkQuest is about letting go...about trusting your team...about taking risks...about finding your momentum and style and letting it take you somewhere exciting...
It just so happens that I got into technology and eventually ThinkQuest coaching, about the same time as I learned how to ski...and it took me about as long to learn, too....These past four years of working first with ThinkQuest senior and then TQJunior have been full of learning, and tech has only been the tip of the iceberg.
As I stand poised at the top of the (bunny) slope, taking deep breaths and looking at the far way I've got to go...the only way to get there is to let go...controlled fall that's what it is...scary and exhilarating... TQ all the way!