I'm Michael Nguyen. I live in Silicon Valley, where I help my community.

I've always been a tinkerer at heart, and I remember building my first computer when I was just 14. I watched a ton of YouTube videos on how to put one together, then rode my bike miles away to buy used parts on Craigslist. It wasn't the fanciest PC, but I was happy to be able to run Minecraft at 50 fps on low render distance.

But what I love even more than working with computers is helping out my community. When I was 16, I convinced a few friends to get into PC gaming and built computers for each of them. I was their go-to IT guy for any issues they had. And when I wasn't helping out with computers, I was replacing iPod and iPhone screens during lunch for classmates—all for free, because I was just happy to have their respect and gratitude.

In college, I thought I wanted to be a doctor, but I soon realized that wasn't the best way for me to help my community. So I switched to Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and started my career in web development, data visualization, and databases.

Now, I'm a freelancer web developer working on a software-as-a-service to help my clients manage leads and increase sales. I make it a point to learn something new every day, and I hope that one day I'll have the knowledge and skills to make a big impact on my community.