The Village That Built an Engineer: A Reflection on Mentorship

No one becomes an engineer in a vacuum. Looking back at my journey, I realize that every milestone was supported by mentors who saw potential in me before I saw it in myself.

Academic Foundations at BYU

My time at Brigham Young University was defined by rigorous research and early exposure to the cutting edge of NLP.

• Nancy Fulda: Trusted me in the BYU DRAGN Labs, where we were working on Transformers long before the mainstream success of ChatGPT.
• Scott T. Toborg: Provided invaluable guidance during our Capstone project with Sandia National Laboratories.
• Naataanii Tsosie: My first mentor at BYU Broadcasting who set the standard for what professional software engineering looks like.

Professional Growth at Pattern®

At Pattern®, I've had the privilege of working under leaders who prioritize innovation and bold ideas.

• David Wright & Melanie Alder: Thank you for seeing my potential as an intern and supporting my transition into Engineering and Data Science.
• Jason Wells & Newel Cobb: For your brilliance and humor in building the Portal robotics system and launching Content Brief.
• Brian R. Otte: For mentorship that combined technical feedback with a focus on product excellence.

The Startup Hustle

Experiences with Leftovers and Podflow AI taught me the importance of proactive execution and scalable microservices. Working with founders like Dallin Bentley and Jacob Zinn was a masterclass in the "hustle" required to bring AI products to market.

To every mentor and peer who has invested their time in my growth: Thank you.