Celeste Ramirez

Background

About Celeste Ramirez

The past decade has been a time intense personal and professional growth. In 2009, I graduated from what is now Lake-Sumter State College with an AA in Business Administration. I had plans at the time to continue this education at Flagler College, but I opted not to pursue a degree in Business at that time. It did not feel like it would be a smart investment, and in retrospect, I am glad I made that choice. In 2012, I became the Office Manager and Vice President for a commercial printing company that I co-owned with my parents. This required skills to be built and honed very quickly; from client relations to workflow design. Over the course of this employment, I would advise purchases of equipment, research product pricing, invoice and collect client payments, proofread, design and evaluate in-office ticketing systems, and more. By 2013, I discovered a new passion in programming. I endeavored to teach myself C and Python, and dabbled in web development. Over the following two years, I taught myself more and more skills, from hosting remote servers on Amazon Web Services to scripting small standalone tools. As I became more knowledgeable, I also built up my writing and proofreading skills by documenting code and systems. In 2016, it was time to go back to complete my education. I was accepted to Florida Polytechnic University, where I studied for a BS in Computer Science. Along the way, I led teams of other developers whose work gained recognition and won scholarship rewards from organizations outside of the university, such as NASA. Plans had been formed prior to my acceptance to Florida Polytechnic University. I knew of a company in my hometown of Eustis, Florida that was actively developing a video game. I toured the company and asked if I could have my internship there. In the summer of 2017, that came to be. I interned at Steamroller Studios from June until August, after which I was offered a part-time position as a Technical Writer while I continued my education. In 2019, I applied to the Killam Fellowship, a part of the Fulbright Canada scholarships program that encourages ambassadors between Canada and the United States. I was accepted and spent the Fall semester of 2019 in London, Ontario at the University of Western Ontario. When I returned from my trip, I graduated from Florida Polytechnic University with a 3.5 GPA in May 2020. I continue to build my skills with a focus in C++, C#, Python, technical writing, and leadership. Every opportunity is a chance to learn and grow.