A VMware platform engineer, Stan Dorsett mentors our 4th – 5th grade team at Rosemont Elementary in Dallas. In fact, Stan was an early advocate for bringing Bold Idea to his children's school in their North Oak Cliff neighborhood, enabling Bold Idea to start serving students in Dallas ISD. We're now lucky to have Stan on our mentoring team and to work with his son Malcolm each week.

Meet Stan...

How did you become interested in tech or programming?
My Dad was an electrical engineer, so I always had electronic kits and other STEM toys around as a kid. Dad brought home a Commodore C-64 computer when I was in high school and I was hooked.

What did you study in college?
I took some junior college classes on an electrical engineering track, but I didn't follow through with college. I instead learned to operate printing presses as a trade and worked in that field until I jumped back over to computers as a career in my late 20s.

What are you working on now?
I work on automating cloud infrastructure for VMware customers. I really enjoy working with rapidly changing technologies and the thrill of learning something new almost every day.

What have you gained from being a mentor? What was your most memorable moment while mentoring?
It is easy to forget the frustration you feel when you are first learning a thing. I enjoy encouraging the students and trying to help them staying positive through that initial frustration. It is fulfilling to see them push through and finally see them figure the thing out.

Is there anything that you wish you could tell your younger self about coding?
I wish I would have stuck with my initial love of computers, but I still feel fortunate to have circled back around to it as I did.

Is there anything about our mission that really connects with you?
The feeling of involvement with kids in my immediate community and the classmates of my children is awesome. I feel thankful to have a program like this available in their school and am grateful for all the other mentors that give of their time to make it a success.