![Keefer Taylor [dot] Com](logo.png){kind=logo}
Overview
Hey! My name is Keefer, and I'm one part student, one part web designer, one part entrepreneur, and one part curious intellectual.
I'm currently attending college at University of Richmond, pursuing a business and computer science major, along with a minor in mathematics. After graduating, I'd like to be able to work at an internet based startup. If you'd like to help me with my goal of finding employment, I'd much appreciate it if you could drop me a line.
If you're still interested, you can continue on using the navigational buttons to learn a little bit more about my life, what I'm all about, and what drives me.
Early Years
I was born a pretty typical boy in Abington, PA, on February 20, 1991.
I spent most of my time growing up in a small town in Eastern Pennsylvania, known as Upper Black Eddy, whose location is just as obscure as its name. Surrounded by woods, I was often left to my own devices for entertainment.
I picked up my first programming book in middle school, during the seventh grade. After years of fiddling with computers without any form of guidance (and without many results), I finally decided to take a distance learning course provided by John Hopkins, an opportunity which I was most fortunate to be granted through an independent study course. Middle school was also where I began to enjoy running cross country and wrestling, two sports that I would continue through high school.
High School Part I
I attended high school at Blair Academy, a prestigious boarding school in New Jersey. There I continued to wrestle (and did fairly decently - freshman year I held a varsity position and our team was ranked #1 in the nation), and run cross country. My interest in computer science became dormant, as although I loved the challenges and puzzles of coding and creating media, I never had the means to creat something that a would influence a large audience.
This all changed my junior year, when I discovered Adobe Flash. With my programming knowledge, I was able to pick up Flash quickly, but more importantly, Flash gave me the opportunity to easily work with graphics. In addition, I could easily share whatever I created with others through the internet. Much to my parents dismay (who insisted that I needed to spend less time fooling around on a computer, and more time doing homework and going to classes), my interest in computer science exploded, and I spent an increasing amount of time learning about Flash and related internet technologies.
High School Part II
By the end of the year, I had created my first flash game, called Gravity Orb, which was sponsored by Much Games, an online flash gaming company.
For the first time, I had been able to release something I had worked hard on to a large group of people (the internet). Not only that, but I had gotten paid for it too! Inspired, I set to work learning as much as I could about the web platform.In the next few years, I worked on several of my own projects (e.g. this website), held employment and internships at web development companies such as Earworm Media, as well as starting an after school web design club at Blair.
I was accepted early decision to University of Richmond fall of my high school senior year. It was my first choice, and I was estatic.
College
I was elated to be joining the institution of Richmond, with its beautiful campus, abundant learning opportunities, and, most importantly, a slightly warmer climate than Pennsylvania. I planned to major in computer science and business, and pursue a minor in math.
Upon arriving on campus, I almost immediately found employment with the communications office, working on the University's website. I was also elected to student senate for both my freshman and sophmore year, and achieved Dean's List distinction, and was inducted into the Phi Eta Sigma honor society.
Also during my freshman year, I participated in a school wide business pitch competition. Despite my lack of business pitching knowledge, I was extremely passionate about my idea, a web startup, idealized many of the goals I wished to achieve later in my life. I was chosen as one of five finalists out of twenty six teams. Despite failing to place in the top three, I was encouraged that I was the only freshman to reach the final round.
Towards the end of my freshman year, I was fortunate enough to recieve a research grant to remain on campus during the summer and study possible algorithms that could be used in a collaborative recommendation system, which was planned to be implemented in a website form, and that would suggest classes to students for them to take.
Today
Which brings us to today, the day I write a brief bio of my life into a website, to be read by whoever happens past.
Hopefully, this section has served to give you a decent idea of who I am and what I'm like, but if you still have questions, you can always contact me.
In the meantime, I'll endeavour to update this section in the future as I find the need to share more relevant events and happenings in my life. Thanks for reading.
